The Poseidon – The Worlds Most Wanted Pirate
by joshnaruto
Summary: Poseidon - a name given to a man of legends. After vanishing from the face of the earth for 32 years, he reappears. His very presence back in the world will shake its very foundations as we know it! Naru/Harem
1. Poseidon

Joshnaruto back again a new story

This is my new story I have been working on. It is a Naruto/One Piece story that I have wanted to do for a while but never got around to. The reason I have decided to do this is because two weeks ago my laptop basically screwed up for some reason and I was forced to format it and in the process I lost everything I have ever written. As you'd imagine I was pretty damned pissed, but then I got depressed that I'd lost everything, including many chapters for my stories.

From that point I've lost my motivation to rewrite those chapters since I'd spent so much time on them that I just know they'd never be the same. To those who like my stories and have been waiting for an update, I will continue them at a later time but at this point I want to carry on this one. I never put up a note on those stories because I don't want to give you guys false hope when you see the story had been updated, I get pissed when I see it happen with other stories so I didn't want that for you guys, not that waiting this long was any better but it's better than nothing.

Now, on to what you need to know about this story:

The way this crossover works is that Naruto was born in the One Piece world. The Naruto world doesn't exist but there will be characters, villages named as islands and I will try to combine the two as much as I can without deviating from the One Piece world too much. The reason I chose this path was I'm sick of doing the "Naruto and Sasuke's attack sent him to another dimension" and the like. I also didn't want to copy Kenchi's idea of him getting tired of the Elemental Countries because the plot would be the same or similar in the end.

Kyuubi will be involved still but in a different manner, it won't be a person or creature but it will be involved. Naruto's parents are still Minato and Kushina but like all story lines this information and explanations will be saved until much later. All you need to know is that Naruto is a pirate, can't get old (maybe its cliché but it works for me) and is very powerful.

Naruto will not be joining the Straw Hat crew but will be allied with them obviously. He will have his own crew. He is awesome; he takes no commands from a rubber teen. Also, this will follow the canon story so pieces of the manga will be involved as that can't be helped.

Anyway, please give it a chance and review as they will help me improve the story and give you guys what you want to see as much as I can.

I hope you all enjoy this story and chapter and I'd like to thank pokemaster12 for reading it over, your help is much appreciated.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own Naruto or One Piece. I wish I did but some things are too far out of our reach that all we can do is dream and read about them.

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><p><strong><span>The Poseidon – The Worlds Most Wanted Pirate<span>**

**Chapter 1: Poseidon**

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><p><em>In the year 1436 Age of the Sea, a baby boy was born to the world. However, for some reason this boy grew up alone, he had no parents, no one to look after him, nothing. It didn't take long though for this boy to one day make friends, friends that would stick by him no matter what. In 1454 AOS this boy would one day gather his friends and set sail across the seas in a ship, forming a crew of pirates. At the time of setting out to the sea, no one would have expected that the Captain would become a legend to pirates alike, no one would have expected that the Captain would have his name up there alongside Whitebeard, Gol D. Roger, Monkey D. Garp and so many others. <em>

_In his reign as the Captain of his ship, he met other soon to be legends such as Edward Newgate, Gol D. Roger, Silvers Rayleigh, Shiki the Golden Lion and more. He would one day form a strange rivalry between Edward Newgate and Roger whilst also sharing a bond of friendship. Unlike others who would have a specific place in the world, the Captain would continue to journey the world, traversing the man islands within the Grand Line if for any reason because he liked to travel. He had no true goal out there like Roger or Newgate except to explore the world._

_During the many years of his Captaincy, in the year 1490 AOS, a great tragedy struck his crew. However, if one were to look in a history book this event would not be found, only the result of this cataclysm. One day after this event and the Captain had lost his will to live, his emotion to love, his happiness and all that remained was a burning rage so raw and uncontrolled that anything that stood in his way would not survive. _

_Once upon a time, before this event, the Captain had been an easy going man; he was happy, cheerful, mischievous and so many wondrous things. People like Whitebeard would compare him to the man that would become the Pirate King. So when this Captain stormed Marineford and unleashed his full power on them, those that knew him would say that, "Whatever the Marines and World Government did to anger him, deserved it," it was a testament to their loyalty and respect of him as not only a rival, but as a friend._

_This was the start though to what would one day become known as "Judgement Day" when the Captain would launch a full on attack towards the Marineford, proving why he was called **Poseidon**. In that attack, he proved that he was not to be trifled with as he commanded the very seas to attack Marineford. In the process he killed over 100,000 marines, Vice-Admirals, a couple Admirals themselves until he fought both Vice-Admiral Garp and Admiral Sengoku. In that battle, they reduced the Marineford to nothing but rubble though the Captain was unable to defeat the two after spending so much of his power and energy against the others._

_After that day, the Captain vanished off the face of the Earth._

_His self-exile only lasted so long though._

_In 1500 the beginning of the era, The Great Age of Pirates, the Marines manage to finally capture Gol D. Roger, and like many years before, Shiki went on a rampage throughout Marineford before being brought down by Sengoku and Monkey D. Garp. Unlike the Captain that escaped, Shiki was sent to Level 6 of Impel Down for his actions. The great pirate Gol D. Roger was sentenced to death in the year and unknown to anyone, his old friend Poseidon had watched from a far to see his old friend leave the world. Roger's speech before his death also led pirates to the Grand Line to seek out his hidden treasure dubbed "One Piece". This event marked the beginning of an era called "The Great Age of Pirates"._

_Edward Newgate, now known as Whitebeard, began to become known as the Strongest Man in the World after Roger's execution. Whitebeard, despite having a large family in his crew, never stopped looking for the Captain or spreading tales of him and Roger to his crew in order to pass on their legacy._

_In 1516 AOP, the Captain reappeared in the world. However he only appeared before a man called Monkey D. Dragon informing the man that he would like to be a part of the Revolutionary. When Dragon actually recovered from shock and surprise at having such a legend in front of him still looking very young, he asked why he of all people would want to join him since he was known as The World's Most-Dangerous Criminal. The Captain would just tell him that it made sense for The World's Most Wanted Pirate to join him. This was the start of the Captains return to the world as a member of the Revolutionary Army with the goal of destroying the World Government._

_Throughout these years, this Captain would forever be remembered as, "Uzumaki Naruto, The Poseidon – The Worlds Most Wanted Pirate."_

_The year was now 1522 AOP_

XxXxX

**_Sandy Island_**

**_Alabasta Kingdom_**

**_Nanohana_**

Alabasta was an established kingdom with a long history. It was located on Sandy Island roughly half-way through the first part of the Grand Line. Sandy Island was a Summer Island. It was arguably one of the largest islands in the Grand Line, containing several cities and towns and a massive river that ran down the middle. It was also the hot spot for many travelling pirates so it was no surprise to find Marines easily.

Sitting in your everyday local bar was a strange looking man on a barstool at the counter with a bottle of sake in his hand. Not much could be seen of him though as a long black cloak with hood covered him from head to toe. On his back, under the cloak, there was what looked like a long pole with weird shapes on either side stretching from his right shoulder to his left hip, the only indication of any weapon on his person.

Taking a sip of his sake, the man placed the bottle back on the counter, letting out a sigh of content as he cold liquid went down his throat. _'So this is the place that Crocodile, a member of the Shichibukai keeps his not-so secret criminal organization, Baroque Works? What are the chances that he would be right where my target is? His father was right; he would get himself into a lot of trouble.'_ He was brought out of his thoughts as someone bumped into him causing his bottle of sake to fall out of his hand and smash on the counter.

"Hah! You should pay more attention to your surroundings!" A voice came from his side in a cocky and almost mocking tone. "Or did you drop that bottle out of shock of who I am?" Yeah, this guy was not arrogant in the least.

However, the man was not paying attention. In his years he had found a lot of things he loved or liked, lost just as much, but sake would always be eternal, he knew that and it was the only thing that kept him sane. To him, sake was the drink of the gods, brought down by the heavens themselves to give people like him happiness in a bottle.

Naturally it did not match up to the seemingly forgotten food of the gods, ramen, but he'd take what he could get.

So naturally his reason for freezing up was obvious and if the poor, soon to be trashed, man knew that no one ever survived after disrupting his drinking or god forbid smash his bottle, he would've stayed clear of Sandy Island all together.

"Should I care who you are?" The cloaked man asked calmly but with an icy edge to it as he glanced up at the man. The man was about 8'2" in total, taller than him, he wore no undershirt, only a large pirates Captain coat that hung around his shoulders with black pants and black shoes. He had a scruffy black beard with scruff looking black hair and a face that was not a pretty sight to look at. He had no idea who this guy was and he didn't care.

"Ha! I have a bounty of 65 million beli! You think I got that just from-"

"Don't care." The cloaked man interrupted the larger man by waving his hand dismissively before pushing himself up from the counter and off the bar stool. "I could care less about your bounty or your name, the only important fact was that you broke my bottle of sake…and I don't take too kindly to that, ya get me?" He asked with a hidden grin whilst he clenched his fist.

"Yeah, I got ya…" The tall man nodded before bursting out laughing, his crew behind him laughing just as much. "…I understand ye think yer a hot shot, thinking ye can talk down on me! I don't take to kindly to that." He spoke deadly serious with a twinge in his accent as he grasped his sword at his side and slowly pulled it from its sheathe.

The sound of the sword being unsheathed brought a sigh from the cloaked mans' lips. "Why do idiots like you always have to do things the hard way?" Faster than the Captain could keep up with, the sword had been knocked out of his hand, stabbing into a wall at high speed. The Captain was just able to witness the cloaked mans' hand outstretched from having smacked the sword away before the other came in fast, striking him in the stomach and blasting him through the bar doors causing splinters of wood to shower everywhere as the Captain was blown out in the sandy streets.

"Captain!"

"AHHH CAPTAIN!"

"YOU BASTARD!"

"HOW DARE YOU?"

"GET HIM! KILL HIM!"

The cloaked man shifted so that he was facing the crew of pirates, he looked up, his hood casting black shadows over his entire face. The only part that could be seen were his eyes, glowing sapphire orbs that radiated energy like nothing any of them had ever seen. As soon as those eyes became visible, a cold hard killing intent bared down on the crew of hapless pirates. One by one they fell unconscious until they were all out cold. **_'Haoshoku Haki_**_, I always love using that.'_ The man thought to himself as he watched the last pirate fall.

The rest of the bar patrons stared at the man in shock, to them it was as if he had just looked at the pirates and they fell unconscious. One man was even so surprised he had let his hand tilt over, spilling the sake he had been drinking all over his pants, which he ignored in favour of gaping at the man. All the people there could do was wonder how this man, who despite his strange looks seemed normal enough, could take out an entire crew of pirates so easily.

"Tashigi! Assemble all of the men and have them comb every corner of the town for his crew!"

The cloaked man looked out there open doorway to see a man with white hair rush past, jumping over the downed body of the pirate as if it wasn't there. "Looks like Luffy's here already, alright, it's time." Without a word to anyone he walked out of the bar, stepping over the downed pirates without a car in the world.

XxXxX

**_Town Centre_**

"It's gorgeous! I really like it!" A young skinny girl with brown eyes and shoulder-length orange hair said with a large grin. She was at the height of 5'6½" and many people would consider her to be very attractive or even beautiful. She had a blue tattoo on her left shoulder which represented mikan and pinwheels.

She currently wore a dancing girl outfit, with two gold bangles around the top of her arm by her shoulder and the Log Pose on her lift wrist alongside a gold bracelet. The dancing outfit was basically a long light blue shirt with frills and a revealing dark blue bra, leaving her stomach and waist line bare revealing her slim body that would leave men drooling. She also had a pink cloth on her back with very small sleeves that held onto her shoulders.

This was Nami, a pirate and the navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates.

"I hate to complain when you asked is to where these but…" Another woman with a similar stature said. She had long blue hair, with two bangs hanging down, one on either side of her head and pulled back into a ponytail. She was also very slender-bodied, having long thin legs and arms and prominent large breasts. She wore a similar outfit to Nami though her long skirt was a dark blue with purple trimmings and similar frills. Her bra or bikini was also dark blue and revealed the underside of her breasts not to mention made them more pronounced. Like Nami she also had a long piece of cloth on that went down her back though hers was white. "Sanji-san, these make us look more like dancers than normal citizens!" She exclaimed with a sweat drop.

This was Nefertari Vivi, the daughter of Nefertari Cobra and the princess of Alabasta.

"That's okay! Dancers are citizens!" The aforementioned Sanji exclaimed with hearts in his yes, drool coming from his mouth and hands clasped as he stared at the two beautiful women. Sanji was a slim, long-legged, young man with blond hair, often well-dressed, and kept his hair brushed over one side of his face. Among Sanji's physical traits were his distinctive eyebrows. Both formed a spiral but at different ends. His right eyebrow formed a spiral at the outer end, while his left eyebrow formed a spiral at the inner end. He was currently wearing a coat that looked similar to a cloak to blend in with the desert. "It's okay as long as they don't find out you ladies are a princess and pirate, right?"

"But walking through the desert might be a little…" Vivi trailed off as she looked down at her attire, somewhat nervous about revealing so much skin. She was beautiful, she knew that, and that was the problem. There was no telling what kind of men would leer at her, make rude comments or even try to kidnap her just to use her body.

"If you get tired I'd be happy to carry you…hehe…" Sanji trailed off as blood leaded out of his nose at the thought of Vivi being pushed up against him.

Nami's eyes twitched at the drooling Sanji and pinched the bridge of her nose. _'How would that be any better?'_ She thought in annoyance before sighing.

Sanji seemed to snap out of it as he turned to the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates. "Even if you guys are camouflaged not to look like pirates…compared to the girls you still look like bandits!" He laughed with a large grin, puffing smoke from his cigarette.

"How are you any different?" One of them asked through gritted teeth and a tick mark above both eyebrows. He was an average sized, muscular young man. He carried around three swords, bundled up with a green haramaki over his right hip, allowing him to easily draw them with his left hand. His right hand was currently resting over them, though he could also use this hand to pull his swords out before sitting down. He had three identical gold earrings on his left earlobe. Zoro kept a black bandanna tied around his left arm which he usually tied around his forehead when fighting and black trousers tucked inside black boots. Zoro was wearing a plain white shirt with three buttons at the collar, his camouflaged pieces of clothing was a turban-like scarf that wrapped around his neck and head leaving his face visible. He also wore a stripped jacket over his shirt to fit in with the desert and hopefully somehow hide who he is.

This was Roronoa Zoro, a pirate, former bounty hunter, and swordsman of the Straw Hat Crew.

"Huh? Whatcha doin' Chopper?" Another young man asked the last of the group. He was a tanned, slim teenager with black curly hair and a long nose. He wore a dark yellow plaid bandanna, a blue and white striped armband on his left arm, special sniper goggles, brown overalls with a white sash and no shirt underneath. He also carried with him a yellow satchel, which he used to store all his tools and gadgets in. Like Zoro he also wore similar coverings to blend in.

This was Usopp, the sniper of the Straw Hat Pirates.

The aforementioned Chopper was a strange addition to the group. He was a toddler-sized human/reindeer hybrid, transformed this way from a reindeer by eating the Devil Fruit **Hito Hito no Mi **(Human-Human Fruit), allowing him to transform into a hybrid and full human and also allowing him to change his appearance depending on the situation. Chopper's left antler had a metal plate wrapped around it at all times, from being broken in a fight when he was younger. He wore a pale red/pink, fuzzy top hat with a sideways medical cross, a shirt with a green-lined collar, then a bigger one with giant sleeves that was light blue with dark blue liners. He also wore a blue backpack that had the same sideways medical cross as his hat. Chopper also had a remarkable feature that no other reindeer had, a blue nose, while normal reindeers had black ones.

His full name was Tony Tony Chopper and he was the doctor of the Straw Hat Pirates.

However, to try and fit in like the others he chose to wear a helmet in the shape of a duck's head. "Quack." He answered Usopp's question, trying to imitate a real duck. However, his nose was feeling funny to him so he quickly took the helmet off and began to rub his nose. "My nose feels like it's going to fall off!" He whined with a scrunched up face.

"Huh?" Vivi looked over at Chopper and her eyes filled with worry when she saw him tugging on his face with his paws. "Your nose must be sensitive, Tony-kun." She said with a frown, using his first name unlike the others. "Nanohana is famous for its perfume."

"Perfume?" Chopper asked with tears in his eyes.

"There are extremely powerful ingredients in it…" Vivi trailed off when she Nami pull out a strange looking bottle.

"Like this?" Nami asked as she sprayed the perfume on her with a serene smile as the smell reached her nose.

It reached Chopper even faster. "AAAAHH!" He screamed with wide-eyes as tears welled up from the strong smell. "Stop it! Stop it!"

"Aaaa, I'll fall in love all the way to the gates of hell!" Sanji appeared behind Chopper with a dreamy look and hearts in his single visible eye, his mouth was open wide and somehow his cigarette stayed in as he looked at Nami.

"Can you get any dumber?" Zoro asked bluntly, drinking from a bottle of sake.

"WHAT?" Sanji roared at the uncaring swordsman.

"Well I've collected up the materials to make a journey through the Alabastan Desert…where are we going Vivi?" Nami asked the young princess.

"Well…first and foremost I want to stop the rebellion! We don't know when they might rise up and cause needless bloodshed. And the base of the rebellion, where the leader lives…" Her face scrunched up as she furrowed her brows and grit her teeth at the thought of Crocodile of the Shichibukai. "…Is an oasis town called Yuba. To go to Yuba we-"

"Wait, hide!" Zoro quickly moved in and grabbed Vivi to place her by a wall that they all pressed up against at his warning.

"What?" Vivi asked with wide eyes, feeling her heart race at the sudden warning and movement.

"Marines, why are they here…?" Zoro questioned no one in particular. "Sheesh what a ruckus…" He commented as he saw a battalion of Marines run past their location. "Did they find a pirate or something?" As he kept looking, his eyes went wide when he saw their Captain, the one who was being chased. _'NOT YOU!'_

The Captain of the Straw Hats was renowned for wearing his trademark straw hat which was lent to him when he was young by the legendary pirate captain, "Red-Haired" Shanks, who in turn received it from Gol D. Roger. His outfit consisted of short blue trousers along with sandals and a red vest. He also had a scar with two stitches underneath his left eye and short black hair. Appearing to be scrawny underneath his shirt, he had a surprisingly well built physique.

This was Monkey D. Luffy, Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and the eater of the Devil Fruit **Gomu Gomu no Mi** (Gum-Gum Fruit). He was also rather stupid or ignorant, which ever fit better.

"HEY ZORO!" Luffy shouted over to the almost hidden crew that simultaneously face-faulted into the ground.

"THERE'S THE STRAW HAT CREW!" A Marine yelled out to his comrade, pointing over to the recovering group.

"DON'T LET THEM ESCAPE!"

"COME BACK ONCE YOU'VE LOST THEM, YOU IDIOT!" Zoro shouted as Luffy changed direction and began to run towards them.

"Oh, you're all here!" Luffy exclaimed with a grin, pointedly ignoring Zoro's shout as he came up to them.

"Get back men!" A man with white hair shouted as he ran past the Marine canon-fodder.

"Captain!"

"You're not getting away!" The white haired man yelled as his arms began to turn into smoke. **"Moku Moku no Howaito Burō!"** (Plume-Plume White Blow) A cloud of dense smoke came from his arms and shot at Luffy and the crew who stared wide-eyed at the mass of smoke.

Before it could reach them though, a large mirror appeared in between them and blocked the cloud of smoke from reaching the Straw Hats. When Smoker could see his attack would not pass through the mirror he called out off and a moment later the mirror shattered and seemingly dissolved into thin air. "Whoever interrupted me, show themself now!" He shouted out, angered at being stopped from once and for capturing the Straw Hats.

"Phew." Nami breathed out with a slight smile at being saved though a frown graced her features. "Who could possibly stop such an attack though with a mirror of all things? Nothing we had could hope to stop it." She murmured more to herself.

"We're saved!" Usopp exclaimed with a large smile. "Thank god we're saved."

Even Luffy breathed a sigh of relief since all of his attacks just passed through Smoker making the fight one sided, and not on the side he would've preferred. "Whoever did that must be pretty strong." He said with a little grin whilst Zoro grasped a sword, ready to face anyone. Vivi meanwhile had taken cover behind Usopp, even though he was most likely more afraid while Sanji stood calmly smoking.

The shuffling of feet caused them all to look down another path where they could see the figure of a man with a black cloak with its hood up covering his face, coming towards them. "I never like a guy that can willingly attack beautiful women like those two." He pointed to Nami and Vivi who in Vivi's case blushed while Nami raised an eyebrow.

"STOP EYEING MY GIRLS!" Sanji yelled in reaction whilst twin dark auras formed around Vivi and Nami, Nami more so.

"You're girls, huh?" Nami asked as she cracked her knuckles. "Forget about it!" She exclaimed, bringing her fist down on Sanji's head and actually managing to floor the lover of women into the ground. "Tch."

Smoker ignored the comic act as he looked at the cloaked man. "I'm only after the Straw Hats, his nakama are just an extra prize. Now don't get in my way again." He threatened the cloaked man, just about to turn back to the Straw Hat crew when the cloaked man sighed.

The cloak man seemed blur in his movement as he moved to stand in-between the two groups, "Yeah, that's gonna be an issue, ya see I can't let you attack Monkey D. Luffy here." He jabbed a thumb at Luffy who blinked owlishly at the man for knowing his name and reason whilst the others looked just as intrigued and weary. "And some upstart like you isn't going to get past me to the Straw Hats."

"A-Are you here to k-kill Luffy too?" Chopper asked for them all, gathering his courage to even ask the mysterious but clearly strong man.

As they waited for his answer, Zoro clicked one of his swords up with his thumb as he got ready to defend his Captain from either Smoker or the cloaked man. "No." The man answered with some humour. "I'll explain it later; we don't have time right now."

"Who do you think you are to stop me?" Smoker demanded of the cloaked individual. "I am a Marine Captain, do not take me lightly!"

The cloak man sighed at Smoker's attitude. "Ever since those many years ago, you people haven't changed. You're still arrogant to the bones, believing you know what is right and wrong and that nothing else can be." He reached into the back of his cloak and grabbed what looked like a staff and quickly pulled it from its confinement into the sunlight to let everyone else feast their eyes on it.

This weapon was a cross between a trident and a ji (a Chinese halberd) with a crystalline appearance. Like the ji, it bore a horsehair tassel, although it was blue instead of the traditional red; similarly the two side blades were straight with concave edges as opposed to the usual crescent blade. The end of the weapon was like a corkscrew/drill shape.

"I-Impossible…" Smoker stuttered at the sight of the weapon. "T-That weapon was lost decades ago along with its wielder! That's nothing but a fake…a replica!"

The other Straw Hats were confused about Smoker's reaction to the weapon since they at first could see fear in his eyes. All of them except Zoro who was eyeing the weapon with hunger getting Sanji's attention. "What's wrong? What's the big deal about that weapon?" He asked, knowing when Zoro was interested in something it had to be a big deal.

"That weapon is called Nejibana and it was last seen decades ago wielded by a man known as Poseidon, the Worlds Most Wanted Pirate. Both Poseidon and Nejibana vanished 32 years ago after he attacked Marineford for no reason except to kill all of the marines and to destroy the island." Zoro explained what he could in the limited time they had. "No one knew why he attacked, some say he lost it, that his power finally got the best of him but…I've never believed in ridiculous rumours before, especially about a fellow swordsman."

"…It's a staff." Usopp corrected after a moment. "He'd be a…staffman?" He questioned himself and the others on what the wording would be.

"The same principle stands." Zoro gritted out before eyeing Nejibana again.

"How do you know that? It was decades ago, so how could you know it when none of us did?" Nami asked Zoro with interest, seemingly ignoring the Marine Captain and mystery man.

"Every great swordsman or weapons master knows or knew of Poseidon and his great power, not to mention his mastery with Nejibana, a legendary weapon itself." Zoro answered with a shrug. "Poseidon was said to be as strong as the Pirate King himself but since that was many years before, reliable information got lost. There were only so many facts left and just like Dracule Mihawk, it's a dream for anyone to meet and face him in battle."

The cloaked man laughed as he listened in to what Zoro said and turned to him though they still couldn't see his face. "So, even after all of these years, Nejibana and the name Poseidon live on? I thought by now the Marines would reduce both names to nothing but trash." Though he said this, he knew that the reason people had been forgetting him was because Poseidon vanished off the map and peoples radar, leading the people to believe he was dead.

Zoro looked at the cloaked man with suspicion. "Like I said, any swordsman that wishes to be great would know of Poseidon, no one really knows what made him lose it all those years ago, making him kill all those people, but to people like me that doesn't matter. As far as I'm concerned he was a powerful swordsman."

The cloaked man looked at the swordsmen before chuckling, that chuckling soon turned into full blown laughter. "You know, you really should stop talking about like I'm not here…" As he said this several eyes widened while he gripped his cloak and yanked it off. "Besides, I don't really go by the name Poseidon anymore, I'd prefer it if you call me Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto."

Uzumaki Naruto didn't look a day over twenty; he had long spiky golden hair that fell past his neckline and to his shoulder-blades with it covering most of his ears and the bangs shadowing parts of his eyes. His tan almost bronze skin glistened in the bright sunrays as his piercing sapphire blue eyes seemed to glow from under his bangs. On either side of his cheek, he had three whisker-like marks though they were thin enough to not stand out too much.

His outfit mainly consisted of a blue sleeveless long jacket that reached down to his ankles with white trimmings over his chest, around the edges and hem with no shirt underneath, displaying the a necklace with a turquoise gem with two small silver balls either side. He also wore long hakama in blue that went down to his ankles, wrapped around his hakama acting like a belt was a long white sash that had the loose ends to dangle down. He also wore white sandals and located at the top of his right arm, just below his shoulder was a tattoo of an ancient man with a silvery flowing beard and a large trident in his right hand as waves crashed around him. It was a very detailed tattoo, most likely represent his power. On his left hand on his ring finger, was what looked like a ring made out of white gold. On the left side of his waist was a gun holster that only revealed a moulded wooden grip.

Everyone could only stare in shock at the supposedly old man that looked just a couple years older and in Zoro and Sanji's case, he looked younger than them. "Liar, you're not nearly old enough to be him!" Smoker exclaimed in disbelief of the man's words.

Naruto sighed at that and stamped Nejibana into the ground. Forming cracks underneath. "Why would I lie? I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the Poseidon, the Worlds Most Wanted Pirate, I'm 86 years old and I'm done hiding." He shrugged his shoulder as he cracked his neck. "I may not look my age but in this world many strange things can happen. Just ask my old friends Gol D. Roger and Whitebeard. Or better yet, ask Fleet Admiral Sengoku and the Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp, I'm sure they can prove my statement."

At the mention of Garp, Luffy's eyes widened even further than they had during Naruto's speech. "You know my gramps?" Luffy asked with shock whilst everyone, Zoro especially stared at Naruto in shock.

Naruto looked over at Luffy and sighed. "Your gramps isn't on my Christmas card list kid, if I ever get the chance, I'll kill him. The only reason I didn't all those years ago was because I used up too much energy fighting my way towards him and Sengoku." His face twisted briefly as memories truck him.

XxXxX

_Naruto wheezed with exertion as he stared at the battered and dishevelled figures that were Sengoku and Monkey D. Garp. Their Marine uniforms were torn to shreds, leaving them completely bare from their waist-up, they had numerous cuts and scars and blood was flowing freely down their bodies, they too looked just as tired as Naruto. Naruto wasn't in any better shape either, he had long since lost clothes and the only thing he had on now was a pair of hakama, not even his shoes has survived. He had cuts as well, probably more than the other two and blood flowed just as freely down his face and body._

_Nejibana was clutched tightly in his hand as tidal waves rocked against the island that was home to Marineford and on the ground all around him and for quite a distance was a layer of his own water. If one were to look behind Naruto they would see nothing but dead bodies of the Marine's that had been stationed at Marineford, Vice-Admirals and Admirals included. Behind the two high ranking Marines were the ruins of Marineford. _

_"Give up Uzumaki Naruto, Poseidon; you aren't strong enough to best us both. Just give in now and it will all be over." Sengoku tried to reason with him, knowing any further battle would most likely end with Naruto's death or more destruction. Either Garp or he could be killed in the process, but they'd make sure Naruto was taken out as well._

_Naruto grit his teeth at Sengoku as his anger boiled inside of him and due to his abilities, steam was actually coming from him as the water within him rose past boiling point. The fact that the ocean round the island began to grow more ferocious as if it was angry as well, was testament to his control over the seas. "You come and attack my ship, my nakama, my home…my-" He struggled to even say the words so he carried on past them. "-and you think I'd just let that GO?" He shouted the last word as his grip on Nejibana grew tighter._

_"Poseidon…" Garp tried to find the words he wanted to say, he knew how Naruto must be feeling, okay maybe not truly, but he had an idea and whilst he didn't want to kill a crew of pirates for the sake of "justice" when said crew had done nothing remotely evil, he could not change the past. Now his actions as well as Sengoku's had cost the lives of many Marines who had families themselves. There was nothing but guilt and regret within him._

_Naruto didn't want to hear what he wanted to say and slashed with Nejibana and though they were a distance from each other a torrent of water was still blasted from the triple-bladed towards the two Marines. Sengoku and Garp held their hands up and used their combined **Busoshoku Hak**i to repel the attack, blowing it over them or leaving it to splash to the ground and escape through the cracks. _

_"Looks like I'm too weak right now…" Naruto muttered with a frown before standing to his full height which admittedly wasn't the same height as Garp and Sengoku. "Looks like I gotta go, but I won't be leaving without imparting a few words." His eyes turned ice cold now as water swirled around his feet. "If the World Government of Marines ever touches someone I care about, I promise you, I will come back and I will destroy everything you have sold your souls to!" With those final words, water rose up around him and splashed to the ground to reveal nothing there._

_For many years Garp and Sengoku would have nightmares about the rampage._

XxXxX

Naruto shook his head of the memories before he looked at Luffy. "Despite my loathing for your gramps Luffy, I'm here to help you. You can accept my help now and I'll fight Smoker or you can decline my help, which considering my history I can understand, and I'll let your brother fight Smoker instead." He inclined his head to a roof top where they all looked to see a man sat on the ledge looking down at them with a grin, more specifically Naruto.

Luffy's apparent brother looked more serious than Luffy's light-hearted personality, and was also slightly taller and more muscular. Like Luffy he had shaggy black hair though it was longer reaching down his neck. He also sported rather childish freckles, and even had a tattoo on his back of the Whitebeard symbol, purple bones formed in a cross behind a purple skull with a white moustache. He had another tattoo on his upper left bicep that spelled out "ASCE" vertically with the "S" crossed out.

He wore nothing over his upper body, black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around his left leg. He also wore a short second belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his shorts. A dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. On Ace's left arm, he wore a Log Pose and a red and white striped bracelet around his wrist, an orange elbow guard, and his "ASCE" tattoo. He wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels.

"The old man was right, you haven't aged a day." Luffy's brother called down with an amused chuckle.

"Ace!" Luffy shouted up with a wide grin, choosing to ignore Naruto's words about his gramps. They weren't his problems and if he ever had to he would hope he could stop any fight between the two, the matter of whether he would survive that didn't matter.

"That guy is Luffy's brother?" Nami asked wide-eyed, sure they looked similar but Ace seemed cooler in a way, not that she didn't think Luffy was uncool…just eccentric.

"They do look remarkably like each other." Vivi commented with a tilt of her head, everything right now seemed crazy to her, there was so much happening and the name "Poseidon" sounded important for some reason.

"Whoa, he looks cool!" Chopper exclaimed with starry eyes like he always got when something looked cool or exciting.

"Luffy!" Ace called down with a large smile. "You look good since the last time we saw each other. I'm sorry, but we don't have much time to talk right now but I will say this…" He paused to look at Naruto. "He's not a bad guy. He might want to kill gramps…but that doesn't make him your enemy, plus gramps is strong, he won't go down without one hell of a fight."

Luffy looked up at Ace with slightly wide eyes before he closed them and nodded to himself, as if making a decision. Letting out a sigh, he turned to Naruto. "If Ace says you're a good guy, then I'll believe him." Naruto grinned and nodded and went to turn to face Smoker. "But, afterwards how about you become our nakama?" He asked with a large smile causing Naruto to freeze.

"EH?" The resounding cry came from the Straw Hat Pirates, Vivi included.

"Are you insane Luffy?" Nami exclaimed, ready to smack the rubber-man. "If he really is this _Poseidon_, then he's too freakin' strong! He'll kill us!"

"Oi!" Zoro snapped at Nami with a scowl. "Just 'cause he's stronger than you doesn't mean he'll kill us. He clearly had a reason for attacking Marineford all those years ago; it's been decades since then. Besides, we all have the same goal or at the very least the same enemies, it makes sense to have someone strong as our nakama!"

"Sorry Luffy…" Naruto said lowly but loud enough for them all to hear and his tone of voice confirmed Ace's fear that Whitebeard would be right about what he'd told him.

_"I don't truly understand why Naruto-san went on a rampage on that day, but what I do know is that he vanished a day later. From what we managed to find out we understand he did not take his ship, the Leviathan, with him leading to the only conclusion something grave happened to the ship and its crew…a crew that held his family and the woman he loved. It doesn't take a genius to come to the assumption that he will not allow himself to go through such pain again. Even if that means cutting himself off from those who care about him."_

After his pause, Naruto turned his head to Luffy with a solemn expression that slowly turned into a grin. "…But I have my own mission I must do. I need to form my own crew, get a ship and let the world know I'm back for good."

Ace blinked in shock at those words before a grin formed on his face. _'Forming your own crew? The old man didn't see that one coming. I'd have liked you to help my little brother but I got the feeling someone's already gotten to you on that one.'_

"Awwww…" Luffy whined childishly, pouting at not having someone strong like him on his ship. "…Are you sure?"

Naruto chuckled at him, he definitely reminded him of Roger, especially with that hat. "All I can do right now for you is helping you free Alabasta, I have my own job to do here also and helping you guys will also help me in the long run. But I need my own crew, there's no two ways about it."

Vivi smiled at what she'd head, though she wasn't really a part of the Straw Hats, she could only hope that having Naruto with them could help save her kingdom from Crocodile and his men. The Straw Hats were just as pleased with that bit of information though they were disappointed about not having him join the crew, even Nami was despite the fact she had insinuated that he would kill them. It was just her mouth speaking before she could think.

Naruto knew that if he should join the Straw Hats he would be putting them in constant danger. Gathering his own crew would be the best thing to do at this point so he could build a formidable team that would not be defeated easily. Whilst he had sworn he would never take a crew on again after his past experience of having his former crew taken from him, he had learnt to move on, it wasn't easy obviously but he couldn't be selfish, not with the changes going on in the world.

Plus, he had to help Luffy along the way, and he need a separate crew to do that so Luffy would also grow without him saving him all the time. He had made a promise after all.

XxXxX

**_Three Months Earlier_**

_Naruto stared across a table at a man sat on the other end with a stupefied look. The man wore a long green cloak, underneath which he wore the garb of a revolutionary, coloured white He had spiky black hair with a widow's peak hairstyle, and what resembled tribal tattoos on the left side of his face coloured dark red. Also, he appeared to have no eyebrows; however, he did have a bit of stubble on his chin in the form of a goatee._

_This was Monkey D. Dragon, leader of the Revolutionary Army._

_"You want me to do what now?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow._

_Dragon sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I want you to look out for my son. He left East Blue to become a pirate at last and when people find out who he is, well, he's going to be wanted by a lot of people. You know I can't go, I'm need here and…Luffy doesn't even know about me."_

_Naruto closed his eyes as he placed his chin on his hand to lean on. "How could anyone possibly know you're Luffy's dad? The only person who could know is…Garp…" He opened his eyes to see if what he was thinking was right._

_Dragon just shrugged at his unasked question. "Daddy dearest might have told Sengoku about Luffy's heritage, but I don't know. What I do know is that Sengoku knows who Luffy is and also who Luffy's older brother really is…" _

_Naruto's eyebrows rose at that information before he sighed. "So you want me to look out for Luffy? I can't join his crew though; if I did he wouldn't be able to grow into who he's supposed to be. I'd just be holding him back and making him rely on me…." _

_"Is that a, 'yes boss, I'll do as you say'?" Dragon asked with a grin. _

_Naruto just flipped him off, boss or not, Dragon was still younger than him. "I have nothing else to do, at the momentthe Revolutionary don't need me. But, I will need a crew of my own, and a ship, and this little…mission…can be a way to tell the world that I'm not dead." He sighed to himself. "I've left the world for a long time and a lot has changed, the Marines are stronger as well as the World Government and I can be morehelpful out there instead of being holed up here."_

_"Are you sure?" Dragon asked, knowing Naruto's past and how he had sworn to never take another crew. _

_Naruto chuckled at his friend. "I'm sure, the past is the past and while I won't ever forget what's happened…I can't let it block me from doing what needs to be done. It'll be good to see Newgate after all these years, thanks to that young Shanks, he should know I'm still around."_

_"Do you know who you'll choose for your crew?" Dragon asked with interest, knowing Naruto always planned ahead._

_"Yup, it's time we called in our new Revolutionaries." Naruto grinned with a gleam in his eyes._

_Dragon actually blinked at that. "Now I'm all for crazy ideas, but are you crazy? They're young, and at the moment they're just small fry compared to anyone else, why them?"_

_Naruto shrugged. "I was a small fry once, so were you, so was Whitebeard. If I take these guys under my wing then I can make them the best of the best. Of course it's their choice."_

_"Even if one of them is a relative of the Straw Hats?" Dragon asked._

_Naruto nodded. "Even then. If anything they'd be able to spend time together."_

_"Thank you." Dragon said, as sincere as he could with a smug grin on his face. _

_Naruto smirked at him. "Don't be smug or I'll show you why I'm more feared than you."_

_"Hah! As far as the world is concerned I'm more feared than you now." Dragon laughed as he waved a hand towards a wall that held bounty papers. "You aren't even counted as a valuable bounty anymore, you're practically a myth to pirates."_

_Naruto's grin turned feral. "I guess we'll have to change that then, huh?"_

XxXxX

Ever since Naruto had joined the Revolutionary Army, Dragon and he had quickly became friends of sorts since Naruto could offer a lot of information and power to dragon which caused the two spend a lot of time together planning, training or just hanging out. Naruto had never expected to make friends in the organization, just simply help out and destroy the World Government, either way, having friend in that place was still nice no matter how unexpected and considering his current plans, he had to make some more.

"You're a liar." Smoker's voice broke Naruto from his thoughts of his friends' request. "I've read up on all dangerous pirates, if you are who you say you are then you would be in your 80's and according to old reports, Uzumaki Naruto was said to have eaten a Devil Fruit that gave him the power of manipulation over water, a Logia type Devil Fruit, **Waki Waki no Mi**!"

The Straw Hats looked at Naruto in shock though Luffy seemed even more excited at that piece of news. Ace himself couldn't stop his eyes from widening, he was technically his opposite. He knew a fight with Naruto would end bad, very bad.

"There was never any mention of you being able to create mirrors out of nothing though." Smoke carried on, hoping for anything to catch Naruto out to be a fraud.

Naruto grinned at the information Smoker had. "You've done your homework, I'm impressed."

Meanwhile Ace had been looking at Naruto with interest before he jumped down to stand beside Naruto. "So the old man was right, you have the Logia type Devil Fruit, **Waki Waki no Mi**, though the immortality is still a mystery."

Naruto chuckled at that. "I take it the old man told you a lot about me then, huh? Though I don't see what reason he could accomplish from that."

Ace just grinned at him. "The old man got the feeling we'd meet one day, so he told me what I need to know. Though I don't see the big deal in us meeting." He said, not knowing why them meeting could matter, apart from the fact Naruto was a legend up there with Whitebeard.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. "Maybe it's because this is where it all changes? The old mans' gut has never been wrong before when we used to fight so I don't doubt it now." He then turned to Smoker, knowing he couldn't ignore him much longer. "It's been 32 since years since I've truly been in the world and since then I've had changed, I haven't sat back and watched the world spin; I've been making a difference in the world. While the old information may help to recognize me, it would do no good when it comes to a fight."

"I see, I'm sorry to tell you that the same goes for the Marine's. Since your attack all those years ago, if it really is you, the Marines have become much stronger and the Devil Fruit helped to power us up." Smoker warned Naruto, though Naruto knew the Marines were much stronger now, having read up on the latest Admirals proved that.

Before anything could start though, Naruto looked back at Luffy. "Get moving to your ship while I take care of this can of gas! We'll talk later!" He called back to them.

Luffy didn't hesitate as he gave a nod and turned to run. "Come on guys, back to Merry!" The rest of the crew gave short nods as they grabbed their bags and shopping and began to run as Luffy looked back. "I'll expect you and Ace later."

When Luffy and the crew were gone, Naruto turned to Ace. "Get back, this could messy." Like with Luffy, Ace just nodded before jumping back and making his way to the top of a building. Naruto turned to Smoker now nothing was in the way. "I'm surprised you stayed there even knowing who you're up against."

Smoker just grunted as his twin cigars puffed out smoke. "Like I said, the Marines have changed since you last shown your face. And if I remember correctly, you had a very high bounty that I don't mind cashing in!" He reached back and pulled his jutte from his back. The tip of the stick was made of Kairoseki, which Smoker had used on Luffy to suppress his Devil Fruit users' powers in order to capture him. It was one of the main reasons why Luffy could not fight him.

Naruto grinned as he held out his left hand which began to gather water all around it, swirling at high speed. At the same time dense smoke enveloped Smokers' hands as he prepared to fight someone who he knew was very powerful.

**"Hahonryū!"** (Tearing Torrent) Naruto had enough waiting as thrust his left hand forward sending the gathered water at Smoker in the form of a large blast of water that actually tore the ground up and soaked the sand instantly.

**"Howaito Supāku!"** (White Spark) Just as Smoker stepped forward his entire body turned into a dense cloud of smoke which rushed the large blast of water with speed just as fast.

**_BOOM!_**

XxXxX

"Get on the ship?" Usopp shouted as they all ran through the town. "Are we leaving the island?"

"No, we're going up the river on the ship…then into the desert." Vivi answered him as she dragged a large bag. "We only came to Nanohana to get supplies!"

"Hey Luffy? Was that other person really your brother?" Nami asked their Captain who was looking back at where they had just ran from.

"Yup." Luffy answered with a grin just as an explosion rocked the earth and a tower of water and smoke rose into the sky from where they left Naruto. "He left our home island three years ago to go in search of One Piece."

"A-Anyway, we should get back on the ship already." Nami told them, or ordered them, as they neared the port.

"W-What about that other guy? P-Poseidon?" Chopper asked in a complete reindeer form to carry a barrel of water on his back.

Zoro chuckled at that as he looked back to see the tower of elements slowly recede. "That guy wouldn't let someone like Smoker to beat him. Don't forget, he's up there with people like the Pirate King."

"Aw man…" Luffy whined with a pout. "…And he won't join us either."

"At least he'll help us though, right?" Vivi said, not liking to see Luffy actually look sad.

"Yeah sure, whatever, right now we have Marines on our asses!" Sanji yelled at them as bullets went flying past them.

"Right! Get on and raise the anchor!" Nami shouted as they came in view of the Going Merry.

"Man, I never thought I'd see Ace here." Luffy grinned to himself despite the situation.

"GET ON LUFFY!" Sanji yelled as he boarded the ship.

Luffy who was still on the port looking at the destruction being caused where they left Naruto, Ace and Smoker, turned to look up at the Going Merry. "Okay!"

"Wait, Carue!" Vivi called out to her large pet spot-billed duck, a fast-footed riding bird, one of the fastest modes of transportation available in Alabasta. Carue was a large, yellow duck. His wings were tipped with black, as were his tail feathers. As the name implies, he had a spot on his bill. He wore a blue chullo with a white pattern on it. He also wore pink goggles with blue lenses. As well as all of that, also carried a barrel of water around his neck, complete with a straw sticking out of it. "I have an extremely important job that only you can do." She said as she petted her loyal pet.

"Quack?" Carue tilted its head to the side as Vivi pulled out a letter.

"Go north to Alubarna and give this letter to my father! This is Crocodile and Baroque Works conspiracy! Igaram and I researched it all. Everything's spelled out plain and clear." She told it whilst holding the letter out to it. "And tell him I'm alive and in Alabasta, with a group of strong-willed friends. Can you do that? You have to cross the desert alone."

"Quack!" That seemed to be an affirmative from the duck as Vivi smiled in relief.

"Okay? Conserve your water in the desert." She placed the letter securely on Carue. "Now, go tell my father! That we can save this country!"

"QUACK!" Carue called out loudly before it shot off at high-speed, going against Vivi's orders and drinking its water quickly.

"CONSERVE YOUR WATER!" Vivi yelled from the ship.

XxXxX

As the combined result of both attacks began to die down, Naruto winced as he saw the buildings around beginning to fall apart from the combination of having very powerful water slapping against them, not to mention the just as dense smoke of Smokers'. That was the problem though, all he had used was his water to attack whereas Smoker had turned into his element and was currently in the form of smoke which meant he had to be careful because where there was smoke there was also Smoker.

Whilst the remainder of his water splashed to the ground, smoked appeared before him and he could see Smokers' head forming. "You underestimated me, Uzumaki!" Smoker partially solidified and drew his jutte before thrusting it at Naruto's chest.

Naruto caught the tip of the weapon in the palm of his left hand without any problem, he didn't even budge back from the force of which Smoker struck which was pretty damn high. "Not bad, that's some good strength on you. But it means nothing against me." He said, just before he held Nejibana up and slashed down at Smoker sending out the equivalent of a wave that struck Smoker and washed him away as the wave rushed down the streets of Nanohana. Thankfully there were civilians, though seeing the Marines that had followed Smoker squirm as the water crashed into the brought a smile to his face.

Naruto looked down at the jutte in his hand and twirled it around, feeling a slight drain on his abilities as he touched the metal. "That weapon is tipped with sea stone. Even touching it with your bare hands the way you are should nullify your Devil Fruit powers and make you as weak as a kitten!" Smoker yelled from just down the road, his body now fully formed.

"Sea stone, huh?" He glanced down at the weapon and enveloped his hand in his **Busoshoku Haki **to nullify the affects. "You're very well prepared to face any Devil Fruit user aren't you? However, your biggest mistake was thinking this would work on me!" Twirling the jutte around once more, he held it at its handle with the sharp end pointing at Smoker. "Have it back!" With strength that seemed unnatural for his size, he threw the jutte javelin-style at Smoker with such force the very air vibrated as it flew across the distant in an instant.

Smoker had been about to turn himself to smoke, managing to do so with his torso only partially but the jutte was simply thrown too fast and managed to catch part of his smoke, automatically nullifying his powers and reforming him just as the jutte pierced his shoulder and actually managed to penetrate the skin through to the other side. It was a very effective weapon when he used it against others, but never before had he had it used against him, but now he knew how it felt to be robbed of his abilities. "Ugh." He grunted as he grabbed the jutte by the handle whilst blood flowed from the wound. It was admittedly the first time he had truly bled in a long time and the ease at which Naruto had done so seemed ridiculous.

"I'll admit it Smoker, you're not half bad." Naruto grinned as he twirled Nejibana around his hand causing water to build up around the bladed end. "But I've learnt how to negate the effects of sea stone to the point that it barely bothers me."

"Haki?" Smoker grunted as he pulled his jutte free. "So you do have it. It makes you just as dangerous then." He grunted as he puffed out smoke from his twin cigars. _'I'm outmatched, completely and utterly. If he uses his Haki he can attack me and see what I'm about to do. This is really Poseidon, the water-based attacks are proof, I can't win against him, but I won't give up without getting the Straw Hats.' _

Naruto just grinned as he slashed Nejibana. **"Wōtā Suraisā!" **(Water Slicer) The water that had gathered around the blade shot from the blade in the form of several very thin crescents that cut right through the ground with ease. When it reached Smoker though they just cut right him turning parts of him into smoke where they struck him. The crescents of water carried on behind him and sliced through several buildings like a knife through butter. The buildings folded in on themselves a moment later; thankfully they were abandoned though it didn't help the fact that Naruto was destroying the place.

Naruto grounded Smoker reformed. "I forgot how annoying it was to fight another Logia type Devil Fruit user."

"My sentiments exactly." Smoker grunted. "Do you really believe you can stop me from chasing the Straw Hats?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe, maybe not, you seem like a persistent guy so I guess the only way to be sure is to kill you."

Smoker smirked at that. "Like a true pirate would say."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "But I don't kill for the sake of it. You Marines are just little puppets to the guys at the top. I'll admit, there are many pirates out there that do bad things, but people like the Straw Hats are not the same. They are the good guys."

"All pirates are the same." Smoker said simply. "In the end, they are all the same."

"I guess I can say the same about the Marines then. Two of your highest ranking Marines took everything away from me, killed my friends even though we had done nothing to harm innocents or the World Government." His hand tightened around Nejibana. "Does that mean I can say that all Marines are heartless bastards thatdo what they want, that just because they have power they can decide the fate of others and peace for your so called absolute justice?"

Smoker grunted as his eyes narrowed. "No pirate is innocent and if your friends were killed by Marines, they clearly deserved it, which is the result of anyone that becomes a pirate."

Naruto had heard enough as he banished from his spot with pure speed and appeared in front of Smoker with Nejibana already in mid-swing. Before Smoker could block or think about it, Nejibana, with water around the blades, struck him in the face and instead of passing through him the blades connected, slicing his cheek in multiple places before the water around the blades seemed to explode, blasting him off his feet and sending him straight into a building which toppled soon after.

With a large leap he jumped up into the air and twirled Nejibana above his head which gathered water all around it before he gave out a battle cry and slashed down at the rubble sending all of the gathered water down at the collapsed building. It was like a tidal wave struck the ground as soon as the water connected with it. An explosion shook the earth as the powerful water struck more buildings and destroyed them while a pillar of smoke and water rose up into the sky before crashing back down with another rather large impact.

Naruto knowing he had to meet up with the Straw Hats quickly vanished in a burst of speed only to appear by Ace who had been forced to actually jump away from the building he had previously been stood on. "You know when you fight with that thing…" Ace nodded at Nejibana. "…Kinda reminds me of seeing the old man fight."

Naruto chuckled before jabbing his thumb at where they could see smoke rising from debris. "We should go meet up with the others, this guy's relentless and we only have a short amount of time, or I guess you have short time to speak with your brother."

Ace grinned and nodded. "I guess you're right."

XxXxX

"Thanks to him, we totally lost sight of the Straw Hat crew! What should we do, Captain?" A Marine asked Smoker who was sat on some steps, twin cigars still in his mouth.

"Someone killed Mr 11 when we left him on the ship, too."

Smoker scowled on the steps he was sat on as he stared at the destruction the battle had brought about. "Alabasta is a large place…let them get away and we'll never get them back. Poseidon! This is your entire fault!" He complained before lowering his eyes slightly. _'Who would've thought he would still be alive? He hasn't aged a day since after he first set sail if his bounty poster is anything to go about. Marineford and Marine HQ must be notified immediately.'_

"Smoker-san! Sorry I'm late!" A female's voice rung out as Smoker heard the slaps of sandals against the ground as rapid footsteps came towards him. The female had chin-length, dark blue hair and dark brown eyes. She wore a dark blue short-sleeved shirt with different with odd designs, blue leather coat with a furred collar and edge linings along with blue jeans, black shoes and rectangular spectacles. A sword was also attached to her right side. "The Straw Hat crew is…"

"Tashigi, where hell were you?" Smoker demanded, only sparring the female a glance as she got closer.

"Sir!" Another Marine answered. "On the other side of the town, sir!"

Tashigi turned to spoken Marine with a sort of betrayed and scandalized look for being told on. "S-Sergeant!"

"What do you think? There was a 'Vivi' among the crew." Smoker asked his companion, thinking of the blue-haired woman with the Straw Hats.

"Vivi? Princess Nefertari?" Tashigi exclaimed in shock. "Why would she be with them?"

"That's what I'm thinking about." Smoker grunted. "And also…the one man in this country that I despise…" He paused to look up at Tashigi. "You know I hate the Shichibukai, don't you?"

"Y-You mean Crocodile-san?" Tashigi asked. "But, speaking logically. He's an ally of the Marines and the World Government."

"He was once an extremely clever pirate…not the type to take orders from any government." His eyes connected with Tashigi's' who gulped at the intensity. "Tashigi, always remember this, no matter how far a pirate goes…he is still a pirate!"

XxXxX

**_Going Merry_**

Naruto stood at the edge of the Going Merry, leaning on the side as he stared out at the desert surrounding them whilst they sailed just down the river or Alabasta. Why they called it a river he didn't know since it was basically just a smaller ocean considering that it split a large part of the desert in two. Either way, it was nice to feel the breeze of the wind as the ship sailed while gazing out at basically nothing. He had missed this. For the past many years, he had kept himself hidden, not journeying because of his own depression that he had slowly been coming out of since joining the Revolutionary Army though even then he was basically holed up in a building offering help where he could.

Now though, he was going to start gathering a crew after helping the Straw Hats, he'll make new nakama and start over though he would never forget his old crew. It just couldn't happen. Only this time, not only will he be helping the Straw Hats along the way and looking out for Luffy, he would also be going for One Piece. He had never bothered with it before because it was no concern of his but now after so many years of having nothing to do, it would be a good journey to find it, it would be fun and it was the only thing to do to honour Roger's death.

Hopefully along the way he could also look out for Roger's son as well like he was with Dragon's, though he doubted Roger's son needed any kind of help.

When Ace and he had made it the ship, Ace on a small portable boat that worked only for him and Naruto by enveloping his body in a bubble of his own water and travelling down the river, Ace had merely said a few words to Luffy and the crew about protecting his dimwit brother and such. Ace had also given Luffy a piece of paper which he said would help them see each other again. That piece of paper was a Vivre Card, a card that would allow one person to find another over long distances. It was also used to monitor the health of someone, should the person the card be used for start to die then that card would slowly burn away.

What he found amusing though was that Ace had asked Luffy and his friends to join Whitebeard which Luffy had simply said no to despite how much of an honour that is to many others. However, Ace had just laughed having expected that answer and Naruto could tell Luffy would always be loyal to his nakama.

Something Ace said though had bothered him since he had left…

_"I'm chasing a major criminal right now…he's been calling himself 'Blackbeard' lately. But he originally used to be a member of the Whitebeard second division. My subordinate. He committed the worst possible crime on a pirate ship…'crewmate killing'."_

…The idea someone would kill their nakama for power left a very bad taste in his mouth. He knew if he ever met Blackbeard, it would not end well.

When Ace had been leaving five Marine ships had been heading for them but they were quickly dealt with by Ace who used his **Mera Mera no Mi** and destroyed the ships with a single attack. Yep, that guy was pretty powerful.

"So…you're this legendary Poseidon?" Naruto glanced back to see the navigator of the ship of the ship coming up to stand beside him.

Naruto smiled at the question as he kept gazing out. "Let me guess, you don't believe me?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

Nami shrugged as she leant forward on the banister. "I'm not sure what to believe, we saw you use water easily before we escaped but I think no one will believe your Poseidon when you're supposed to be near your 90's." She glanced at him. "So how's that possible?"

Naruto shrugged. "No idea. When I became 21 I just stopped aging all together. I can still die obviously, but I haven't aged ever since that day. Something might've happened to me when I was a kid but the bits and pieces of my past that I can remember don't explain how I could have stopped aging."

"What you _can_ remember?" Nami asked, intrigued.

"I have amnesia for the first five years of my life." Naruto answered with a shrug. "I woke up on an island, battered and beaten as if I'd been in a fight and over time a made a life on that, made friends and so on. Maybe one day I'll remember those years but until that day I can go on not knowing, maybe not knowing is for the best."

Nami kept her eye on him before sighing. "I don't know what to make of you and I don't think the others do either though Luffy's just excited he knew someone who knew the Pirate King." She mumbled the past bit in a fond but annoyed manner.

Naruto smiled at her, silently pleased that she was in the least intimidated by his presence and power kike so many have been before. "You find it strange that I'm helping you guys, a bunch of 'rookies' out of the kindness of my own heart?" Nami gave him a sort of grunt. "How about I told you that I made a promise to look out for Luffy, how about I told you that by helping you guys I can make allies, or helping you guys to save the country can also help me to bring life back to Alabasta?"

Nami looked at him with some shock before narrowing her eyes. "I think I can believe you on the first two since Luffy will ally himself with you no matter what, how can you bring life back to here when…most of it is destroyed?"

Naruto chuckled as he held up his hand and water gathered immediately out of the very air. "I can manipulate, create and become water at will. This kingdom is in a very bad draught, what do you think they would do if I gave them back their water? Filled their rivers back up, filled their ponds, ocean, farms, oasis's? They would rebuild what they'd lost. My water can give this kingdom its hope back; I can give all of these people that have given in and surrendered to Crocodile, hope to live on." With a flick of his wrist the water seemed to sink into his skin whilst Nami stared at him in shock and awe that someone could and would do something so willingly.

"You'd do that?" A breathless and hitched voice came from behind them actually startling them both.

They turned around to see Vivi stood there with tears in her eyes and a quivering lip whilst the rest of the crew stood around with smiles at having listened in, though Zoro seemed smug that he was right about him being a good guy whilst Chopper and Usopp hugged with tears in their own eyes at such a 'selfless act' as they called it.

Naruto smiled at Vivi and gave a nod. "I would do it, I used to help your father rout many years ago whenever he had trouble with gathering the needed water to keep your kingdom growing. In a way, this is partially my fault for leaving the world out of my own selfish needs, helping you and your father is the least I can do."

Vivi sniffed before she launched herself at Naruto and wrapped her hands around him whilst laughing and crying at the same time at having more hope for her home to be brought back to life. "Thank you…"

Naruto chuckled as he placed a hand on her head and smoothed her hair back in a comforting gesture.

Luffy grinned as he practically stomped over to him and pointed his finger in Naruto's face getting the blonde to blink owlishly at him whilst Nami slapped her forehead in exasperation. "And when we do beat Crocy's ass and lose Smoky, we will fight to see who's stronger!" He proclaimed, blatantly ignoring the difference in strength whilst everyone went wide-eyed.

Nami groaned before walking over to Luffy, grabbing his ear getting a yelp of pain from the rubber man as she dragged him away but not before sending a smile Naruto's way as if he had confirmed something for her. "Come on rubber guy, the sooner you eat the sooner you sleep."

"FOOD!"

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><p><strong>To Be Continued in the Next Chapter – Chapter 2: Crocodile Emerges<strong>

**Anyway I hope you guys liked this story and chapter. **

**R&R…let me know what you think, questions, comments. Be sure to let me know.**


	2. Crocodile Emerges

Joshnaruto back again a new story

Thank you everyone for your reviews and I will now answer some of them:

**inuboy86:** At the moment Naruto's harem is still in the works. I'm seeing where Naruto goes and who he picks up before I make decisions like that.

**Valheru Transcendent: **Hopefully answering this will help many more people out there. But instead I will quote another reviewer – "Public Service Announcement; lot of people think all water effects devil fruit users...THAT IS INCORRECT. Its only Sea water and the power of the sea that takes away their powers. So although Naruto may have a water water fruit his pure water from within himself wont drain other devil fruit users powers. Now him controlling the sea and using that water...thats another matter entirely."

**bloodyemperor:** Robin will not be in Naruto's crew. I will be keeping the Straw Hats as canon as possible. Though Naruto will help them from time to time.

**Cyspark01: **My friend, you are a genius. Until I read your review I couldn't figure out how to make Naruto truly badass apart from water. Thanks to your review I have made Naruto capable of much more for later on. I won't tell you or the other people what exactly that is since I don't fancy ruining the story, but I thought I'd let you know that your suggestions helped out big time in figuring out how to expand his abilities. To answer your second section of questions I'm not sure if I'll have Naruto fight Blackbeard or Dracule, Blackbeard is Ace's enemy as far as I can see it at this point and I'm seriously unsure if right now Naruto could beat Blackbeard when you consider that fat bastards power from the Yami Yami no Mi. I will think about the possibilities but it will be difficult to do. Dracule is still an unknown in his powers, I could have them have a sort of spar but not much is known about Dracule except that he is powerful enough to fight Shanks. Either way your thoughts will be kept in my mind for the future.

I hope you all enjoy this story and chapter and I'd like to thank pokemaster12 for reading it over, your help is much appreciated.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own Naruto or One Piece. I wish I did but some things are too far out of our reach that all we can do is dream and read about them.

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><p><strong><span>The Poseidon – The Worlds Most Wanted Pirate<span>**

**Chapter 2: Crocodile Emerges**

"We made it!" Luffy exclaimed with a wide smile as he used his hand to shield his eyes from the sun and stared out in front of him. Now that they were in the open desert Vivi had made him wear a red cloak to protect him from the intense sun rays, in fact, everyone had some sort of cloak or robe on. "Wait a minute, there's nothing here!"

Luffy was right in that aspect. The town had been deserted completely by the looks of it and it didn't take a genius to figure out why as the desert had actually buried or covered all of the buildings up to half way. However, the town seemed too small for Yuba so either more buildings had been covered by the desert or…

"This isn't Yuba is it?" Naruto asked he shielded his own eyes from the sun. He also had his cloak back on since with him being a water-man the sun actually affected him more. He was just glad he didn't need to drink water to use his abilities otherwise he would be a lot weaker thanks to how hot and dry it was.

"It isn't?" Luffy complained, his shoulders sagging in abject disappointment.

Vivi giggled at Luffy's antics before nodding at Naruto's question. "No it isn't. We still have to walk north-west through the desert for half a day."

"Half a day?" Usopp exclaimed with an incredulous expression.

"Look at the map." Vivi said, holding a map up to explain as she pointed at their current location which was quite a distance from Yuba. "We crossed the Sandora River and we just landed here at Erumalu, the 'Green Town'."

"Green Town?" Luffy questioned as he looked around with a frown. "But there's nothing green around here!"

"No, not anymore!" Vivi said as if it was no big deal, though considering what she'd been through up to this point, there likely wasn't anything she would see that surprised her. "Up until recently, this town was a lively place, full of green plants. However, in the past three years not a single drop of rain has fallen in the entire country."

Chopper looked away from Luffy with slightly scared eyes as the rubber man had dug up a skull from the sands. "Is that port town going to be okay?" He asked Vivi.

"Nanohana gets its water supply from the oasis at Katorea, so they're safe." She assured him. "Even in Alabasta, no rainfall has never been something to worry about for thousands of years, but there was always one place that got more rain than anywhere else. The capital city, Alubarna. The city built around the King's Palace. People called it the King's Miracle; at least they did until that day…the day that Dance Powder was discovered."

"Dance Powder?" Nami asked Vivi for confirmation.

"Yes."

"Hey, do you know what that is?" Luffy asked his navigator.

Nami nodded. "It's also known as, 'powder that calls rain'."

"Powder that calls rain?" Luffy questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"It was created by some country with no rain, long ago." Nami explained. "The powder emits a mist-like smoke that rises up into the air. It speeds up the creation of ice particles in sub-freezing temperature clouds and causes rainfall."

"Basically it's powder that makes artificial rain." Naruto carried on with a deadpan looked at Luffy. "Like the name points out."

"Ahaaaa, so it's 'Mystery Powder'." Luffy concluded making Naruto close his eyes, Nami to slap her forehead and the rest to just stare at Luffy as if he was special.

"It makes it rain." Zoro said bluntly to Luffy who just gave a large smile.

_'How is this guy your son, Dragon?'_ Naruto thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Luffy was a nice enough guy, but he was just stupid. It was hard to imagine someone like him being related to someone like Dragon.

"Huh? So that would make it perfect for this place, right?" Usopp asked.

"Originally yes, the people who created it called it Dance Powder because it made them dance with joy…but, there was a large pitfall to all this." Viva said, her expression denoting to an increasing sadness.

Nami perked at this point. "It caused droughts to countries downwind! Artificial rain is the process of nurturing clouds that aren't ready to rain yet. It sucks the water out of clouds…"

"I see, it steals rain from clouds that would mature over neighbouring countries!" Usopp continued with a grave look.

Vivi nodded to what they were saying whilst Naruto just stared outwards to what used be a lively village. "Yes…and it started a huge war. The loss of life was profound. Since then, the World Governments have outlawed the manufacturing and possession of Dance Powder world-wide. A powder that brings happiness and misery at the same time. That large shipment of Dance Powder appeared in Nanohana. Soon afterward, an abnormal weather pattern started and no rain fell anywhere except for where the king was!"

"It's normal to distrust the king." Zoro pointed out. "They must have thought he was using the powder to steal all of the rain."

"Crocodile's smart." Naruto said as he turned to face them all. "He set up everything from the very start, a rebellion came to life as towns dried up, people starved and just like he wanted the people began to rebel against an innocent country causing useless bloodshed." He deduced with a frown, wondering what Crocodiles motive was in everything.

Vivi nodded as tears welled up in her eyes. "The kingdoms peace, the trust in the royal family and the rain! The towns and even people's lives were all stolen. And it was because of one man…Crocodile! I will never…ever…let him get away with this!" She cried out the last part as she gritted her teeth.

Naruto signed and walked over to Vivi to place a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry; he'll get what's coming to him. I promise."

XxXxX

**_Yuba_**

They had finally made it to the oasis town just as it was getting dark, however when they arrived they had come upon a ferocious sandstorm that tore the town apart like it was nothing and caused the sand to raise up and bury most of the buildings. They had soon found a lone man who had stayed behind whilst the rebels and townsmen moved on to elsewhere. The man was called Mr Toto, someone who knew Vivi from when she was just a small child.

He had been in the centre of the town digging through the sand in order to get to the oasis even though he was a frail old man. It made Naruto all the more determined to save the country by using his Devil Fruit powers to bring water to the drought ridden country. Hopefully Crocodile would be dealt with by Luffy without him needing to step in whatsoever, and it would be one step closer to his own goal of forming his crew, not to mention it would knock down the Shichibukai a peg or two, making them weaker, especially since Crocodile was very powerful.

At the moment though, they were all staying within an abandoned inn since it was now well past midnight and freezing outside due to the climate in the desert dropping exponentially. Naruto though instead of sleeping like the others was sitting on a balcony on the second floor of the inn which at this point was on the same level as the sand. What he was staring at though was Luffy helping Mr Toto dig through the sane for water.

Lifting his right hand up, water enveloped it immediately before moving to form a ball on his palm. _'The amount of water that comes from this could possibly save this town. Of course the people must be here and not out rebelling against the King. Crocodile has done a good job turning this place upside down, literally, but tomorrow I get the feeling it's not going to be an easy day for the others. I can't involve myself with their fights, unless their life is danger.'_ As he looked back down at the orb of water in his hand it slowly started to change shape into what looked like a person before the water became more defined making the person feminine looking.

The figure of a woman stood upon the palm of his hand, wearing what looked like a skirt with the left side reaching down to her knee and other side reaching down past her ankle. On the left side of her leg there was a gun holster with a revolver-like gun in it. The woman also had a t-shirt with a hooded-like jumper over it though since it was merely made from water there was nothing that stood out too much whilst the figures hair was down to her neck with spikes at the end, wide eyes and what looked like a smile on her face.

"Who is that?" The soft voice broke his concentration and thoughts which caused the water to break apart and seep into his skin.

Tilting his head back to get a good luck at who spoke, he saw Vivi standing there rubbing her right eye obviously having woken up from her sleep. Looking back down at where the figure had been he shook his head. "It's nothing, just someone from my past." He looked back up at her as she looked to be ready to ask another question. "I take it you couldn't sleep."

Vivi, sensing he didn't want to speak about the woman, nodded. "I couldn't stop thinking about all of this." She waved a hand to the outside where the sand had risen up to swallow the buildings half way.

"I told you before; we'll save your home." He said gently as she sat down beside him with her legs between the bars of the balcony letting her legs hang over the edge whilst she gripped the bars.

"I know you did and thank you. You have no obligation to be here and neither do the Straw Hats." She said with a smile as she thought of her new friends.

Naruto chuckled as he looked down at Luffy still digging. "You're wrong. We all have an obligation to be here. The simple fact that this place needs help is all the reason they need…"

Viva looked at him as he trailed off. "What about you?"

"Me?" Naruto asked with a grin. "I'm here to help an old friend, your father. Though I wouldn't sit back while a princess is in need of help of course, I've never helped a princess before actually." He mussed before a grin formed. "But I did save a queen once, ahh, good times."

Vivi stared at him for a moment before breaking out into giggles. "I still find it hard to believe that you're over 80 years old. You don't even act like it, and yet you're powerful, or so I'm told." She smiled at him. "What's it like, to never age?"

Naruto glanced at her before frowning. "It's a curse. Being forced to stand still in time while everything and everyone passes by, but, I guess there's a good side to it too…I can make a difference in the world and see it all through. In the end it just matters how I use my immortality, whining about it will do nothing so why not just change the world to be a better place?" He grinned at her.

Vivi smiled at that. "So Luffy wants to be Pirate King and you want change the world? It's a good thing you two know each other and Luffy practically worships the ground you're on." She was right. Ever since Luffy found out who Naruto was and his former rivalry/friendship with Roger he had been wanting to fight him the entire time just to test his strength. But until Naruto saw a change in Luffy, strength-wise, he wouldn't accept any challenge.

He wasn't arrogant in his strength; he just _knew_ he was far stronger than Luffy. He wasn't up there with Whitebeard, Roger, Shanks and a few others just because of his good lucks. He had earned his place in the world by training like mad; fighting strong opponents and a strong crew didn't hurt either. Those were the things Luffy needed as well which he was on his way with.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Until I form my own crew and get my own ship, then I won't be doing much of anything…but when I do, Luffy won't be the only one aiming for One Piece."

Vivi looked at him in surprise. "You're going for One piece?"

Naruto nodded. "Going for One Piece will also take me on a great journey all over the Grand Line, where I'll be able to make differences in the world. Plus I need to have something to do now." It also helped him to keep an eye on Luffy if they had the same goal.

Vivi giggled and nodded in understanding. Looking back over the sand covered town, she asked. "Can't you use your water or something to help them down there?"

Naruto looked down at the two people digging and frowned. "If I use my powers now, it would raise suspicions as to why water suddenly appeared. It would cause too much of scene and raise questions. We should just do what we're doing and take everything at a steady pace, Crocodile is smart, he still has the Baroque Works under his thumb and if we antagonize them now there's no telling what they'll do. Don't forget, there are still a lot of people out there that Crocodile can attack to send a message."

Vivi sighed as she leant her head on his shoulder, too tired right now to really care. "I guess your right…"

Naruto looked down at the young teen with a small smile. _'I promise Vivi, I won't let you lose your home.'_

XxXxX

**_The Next Day_**

Naruto was fitting in with the group pretty well despite only joining them the day before. Zoro he could get along well with since despite the man being somewhat clumsy and lazy, he was very perceptive and had a liking for swords or weapons of any kind which he did too though he only really used his Nejibana and his revolver that he kept at his left side. Usopp was more of a comic relief for the group that provided them with some humour though he did appear to be a very good marksmen which would be very useful in the future, especially if he got over his cowardice.

Nami was naturally a nice woman, aside from having beauty on her side she was a pleasant woman to be around and to talk to not to mention she was the one who kept the group grounded, being their navigator was also important as well so she was far from useless especially since she used a strange pole to fight. Really the only one Naruto found weird was Chopper, who he couldn't figure out if the reindeer was a mascot or a doctor. He had been told of how Chopper had ate a Devil Fruit as a reindeer and became a hybrid but seeing him changing forms as if it was nothing was more than just a little unusual though his medical capabilities were astounding especially since he made an ointment for sunburn which they had been getting, the ointment healed them within an hour. Naruto could tell Chopper was powerful and would only continue to grow.

Of course he basically knew all about what Luffy was like though he was a bit ignorant he still had brains and the determination to do anything. From what he had been told and heard, Luffy was also fearless which was good considering who he would be fighting later on and in the future.

It was just a shame he would be leaving them soon.

"I quit!" Luffy said suddenly, dropping down to lean back against a tree.

Everyone stopped walking across the long desert to stare at Luffy in nothing but utter shock, even Naruto was in shock at what Luffy said though he chose to be quiet to see what became of this situation. They had been walking for a few hours now from Yuba and after Mr. Toto had given Luffy some water they had eventually dug up. If Naruto was honest with himself, the heat from the sun was affecting him somewhat, not his powers or his body; just the scorching heat that seemed to just bypass his cloak, then again perhaps wearing a black cloak didn't help.

"Luffy?" Nami questioned with a frown of worry.

"What's going on?" Zoro asked in a bored like tone.

Luffy just looked at them with a serious expression. "I want to beat the crap out of Crocodile." Vivi looked happy but also worried at that. "If we stop the guys who are rebelling, will we stop Crocodile? We can't do anything even if we go to this place. We're pirates, you'd be better off without us."

Everyone just stared at Luffy. Nami in worry at what he was saying and wanting to help her new friend. Zoro just looked at Luffy with a speculative gleam in his eyes, wondering where he was going with his speech and Chopper seemed to be thinking along the same lines though with being in his reindeer form it was hard to tell.

"Sometimes he hits the bull's-eye without even thinking." Sanji deadpanned.

Usopp nodded in agreement. "That's Luffy for you."

"Wait…" Vivi tried to speak through her panic of him not helping.

"You just don't want anyone to die in this war! The people of your country, or us, or anyone! You're talking about a fight against one of the Shichibukai, in which over a million people will be in battle, and all you want is for no one to die!" Luffy's eyes bore into Vivi's steady but wavering gaze. "That's naïve."

"Stop, Luffy! Can't you think of Vivi's feelings?" Nami shouted at Luffy.

Sanji held out a hand in front of her to stop her. "Wait, Nami-san…"

"But…!"

"What's wrong with that?" Vivi demanded of Luffy. "What's wrong about not wanting people to die?"

"People die." Luffy stated more seriously than Naruto had ever seen him, it seemed that Luffy wasn't a complete idiot after all. However, before Luffy could say anything Vivi had marched over to him and delivered a strong punch that knocked Luffy away from the tree. "Ubfh!"

"STOP TALKING LIKE THAT!" Vivi yelled, red faced with anger. "DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT AGAIN! THAT'S WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO STOP! YOU CAN'T BLAME THE REBELS OR THE ARMY FOR THIS! WHY SHOULD ANYONE DIE? THIS IS ALL CROCODILE'S FAULT!"

Luffy reacted just as Vivi did and actually punched her across the face which caused the princess to grit her teeth as her face throbbed with pain. "THEN WHY ARE YOU RISKING YOUR LIFE?"

Usopp knowing the situation was going too far stepped forward. "THAT'S GOING TOO FAR, LUFFY!"

Sanji though looked as if he had just had a heart attack as he saw Vivi get knocked back. "DAMMIT, LUFFY!"

"WHAT?" Vivi shouted to what Luffy had said to her as she dove at him, tackling him to the ground just to punch him in the face.

"EVEN I CAN TELL WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS THE MOST! JUST BY LOOKING AT THE SITUATION!" Luffy shouted up to her as she tried to strangle him and to Naruto it looked quite amusing. "YOU THINK RISKING ONE LIFE IS ENOUGH?"

"THEN WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?" Vivi yelled, tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she did so. "THERE'S NOTHING LEFT I HAVE TO SAY…!" She fell back from Luffy as she began to feel tired from punching him.

"WHY DON'T YOU TRY RISKING OUR LIVES, TOO?" Luffy screamed at her, completely shocking her as she held a hand to her mouth with tears falling down. "I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!" Luffy calmed down as he sat just in front of the princess. "Look at you…you're crying." He said with a sigh as Vivi pulled her hood over her head to cover her tears. "You're the one who wants to kill him the most! Tell me, tell me where Crocodile is!"

"Are you two done now?" Naruto asked the two that were breathing heavily on the ground, from their emotional high, the sun and fatigue all rolled into one. They both looked up at him with exhausted looks while everyone stared at Naruto who had appeared by the two. He hadn't a said thing the entire time due to the fact that they were old enough to sort their own problems out and some things just had to be said no matter what. "Good." Lifting his hand up, he held out two fingers which gathered small orbs of water above them. With a flick of both fingers both orbs flew upwards causing them all to look as they seemed to explode with more water than they looked like they carried.

Two separate torrents of water fell down upon Luffy and Vivi, soaking them to the bone and causing their clothes to cling to the skin and in Vivi's case, show off her curves which caused Sanji to be blown back via nosebleed. Vivi though, whilst thankful for the water cooling her down, tried to cover her up her chest that was being more pronounced. "A little warning next, please!" She gritted out to a smirking Naruto.

Thankfully his water was not seawater so when Luffy was splashed by just an equal amount he didn't feel weakened by it, if anything he felt better because of the cooling water. "Ahhh, you sure you can't become our nakama, you can come in handy when we need to cool down?" Luffy asked Naruto causing his crew to face-fault.

Nami stomped over to Luffy and kicked him in the head which threw him in the sand face first. "YOU CAN'T USE SOMEONE JUST COOL YOU DOWN, YOU IDIOT!" She pinched the bridge of her nose, a habit that Naruto had noticed she did whenever she was frustrated and trying to calm down. "Why did you soak them?"

Naruto chuckled at their act before shrugging. "They were exhausted and the water can help to cool them down." He turned to Vivi and knelt down so he was face to face with her. "Come on, Crocodile isn't going to just wait for us and I'm sure he knows you guys are here."

"So we're going for Crocodile then?" Zoro asked with a grin.

"Yes." Naruto nodded, helping Vivi up. "He's in a town called 'Rainbase', straight to the north of Yuba. From what I've discovered his main base of operations is the 'Rain Dinners' a casino."

"Casino?" Nami asked with stars in her eyes, although they looked more like beli signs.

"How do you know this?" Vivi asked Naruto with a frown.

Naruto shrugged. "I've not been doing nothing whilst I wasn't out in the open. I've been gathering information from all over the place and Crocodile's was the one that stood out the most considering he's a Shichibukai."

"So we're going to this Rainbase place?" Luffy asked, standing up to stare at Naruto.

"Yes, though I'll be meeting you there." He said making them all confused.

"What do you mean?" Chopper asked with a tilted head that suited its current form.

"I'm a **Mizu Bunshin** that I, or rather, my original left behind last night whilst he went to Rainbase." The now discovered clone said with a grin. "He knew you'd be heading there eventually and went to scout out the place. I don't need to remind you that we're not a part of your crew, we're just helping you guys out."

"So this entire time you've not really been here?" Nami asked with surprise and shock.

"No, not really. Not since last night anyway, anyway my time's up right now so you'll have to make it to Rainbase without me." He said just before his body splashed to the ground.

They all just stared down at the now soaked part of sand before Luffy began to grow a large smile. "That was…AWESOME!" He shouted with a loud laugh.

Vivi smiled at his antics before turning to them all. "Naruto-san is right, he isn't a part of you guys so he doesn't really have to stink with us, him going on ahead is a great advantage and since no one knows he's with us then he can't be associated with us if he does something. This could be very helpful." She pulled out her map as they all nodded in agreement. "Ok, here is Rainbase…"

XxXxX

**_Rainbase: City of Dreams_**

Whilst the Straw Hats were traversing through a desert with minimal water, no food and the sun glaring down on them, Naruto was sitting relaxed at a table in a casino with a bottle of sake. The casino was also well built as it didn't allow too much heat in and it even had some form of air conditioning that gave the place a cool atmosphere, an escape from the outside basically and a way to keep people gambling.

Unfortunately gambling was not his reason for being in this particular casino as he looked around the large casino. He knew some of the Baroque Works people were still alive and most likely in this very building and the sooner he found them the better. He might not be fighting them since he would let the Straw Hats do that but it was always helpful to find the enemy first. There was also one of the Baroque Works people that he was looking for though, someone he had met a few years ago.

Taking a sip of his sake, he swirled it around in its bottle as he began to think of his plans. _'If Luffy beats Crocodile which will be hard but possible, I may be able to get Crocodile on my side with the promise of saving him from the Marine's since they will be after him and he'll be too weak to fight them, hopefully. Though he won't be easy to convince but I've got nothing to lose. Then I have to go to Konomi Islands for the Revolutionaries new recruit, she's promising with navigating which even I need and from what I hear her marksmanship is nothing to laugh at and with my help I can make her stronger…then I have to find my doctor but that shouldn't be difficult…then I need to build my crew up…'_

He was broken from his thoughts as he felt the large seat he was sitting on shift with some added weight to his right. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the infamous Poseidon." A soft voice spoke up. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Naruto glanced to his right to see a tall, slender yet athletic woman with shoulder length black hair. Her eyes were blue with dark and wide pupils and she had a very characteristic plain nose. Her limbs were somewhat long, especially her legs, and overall height with a narrow waist. Many people would consider her to be a beautiful woman.

She wore a skimpy cowgirl outfit consisting of a purple cleavage-exposing top and matching miniskirt, both with white ornaments hanging from them, and a white fur-lined coat paired with a white cowboy hat and white high-heeled boots.

"Nico Robin." He greeted before giving her a smirk. "Or should I call you Miss All Sunday?"

Nico Robin leaned her cheek into her hand. "That's up you; I don't really have a preference for either."

Naruto smirked and finally turned to face her. "It's certainly been a while hasn't it?"

Nico Robin shook her head. "Trust you to act so callous in the enemies' stronghold." She shook her head though her smile remained in place. "When we met three years ago, you spoke of this…Revolutionary Army…why did you offer me a place with them when you know I betray the trust of everyone I work with?"

Naruto chuckled. "Because everyone, even those who have lost the ability to trust, deserve to have nakama that will stand by them at all times."

Nico Robin just giggled lightly. "And you believe this group of yours could offer me such a thing? " She shook her head as her eyes seemed to darken. "Such a thing doesn't exist. In the end, humans will always betray others one way or another."

Naruto sighed to himself at the obvious answer from her. "You can keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night, but I'm not here talk to you about joining me." That got her attention. "Tell me everything about Crocodile, the Baroque Works and his plan."

Robin raised an eyebrow at that as she leaned back in her seat. "And why should I betray my partner and boss?"

Naruto just shrugged uncaring as he took a gulp of his sake. "Ahhh, that's the stuff. Anyway, no matter how you look at it you'll betray Crocodile when you find the Poneglyph here so before that happens I may as well pick at that impressive mind hidden in that pretty head of yours for some information that could help my…friends."

Robin's eyes opened wide in shock at his words before she regained her composure. "You know of the Poneglyph?" She chuckled at her own question and shook her head. "Of course you do, what don't you know? Let's say I do tell you, how could it benefit you? I know you most likely have the power to take down Crocodile, so why not finish him yourself?"

Naruto shook his head the black haired woman. "Because there are times when you must let others finish what they've started."

Robin stared at him for a moment before laughing softly. "You mean Straw Hat Luffy? You believe he can defeat Crocodile all by himself? I once heard that Poseidon was one of the greatest pirates out there, but it looks like you've fallen if you're relying on a rookie to defeat a member of the Shichibukai."

Naruto smiled at basically nothing. "Maybe over the years I have fallen somewhat, but every great pirate or person must fight their own battles without others fighting them for them. If you believe Luffy cannot defeat Crocodile, then that's your opinion. But I have faith in him and his nakama to complete their mission."

Robin stared at him for a moment before sighing to herself. "I suppose arguing with someone like you is a waste of time. One more question, what will you do with me once I tell you what you want to know?"

Naruto could tell her defences were up, obviously a sign that whilst she didn't trust him or anyone else, she was still putting herself out there. "I will do nothing. You tell me what I want to know and I'll leave you as if I was never here in the first place."

Nico Robin stared at the enigma that was Uzumaki Naruto and could honestly say he was breaking through her defences just by being nothing but an honest man. It was what infuriated and confused her the most because he was a man with so much at his disposal that he didn't need anyone by his side. And yet he was willing to help the Straw Hats just because he wanted them to complete their mission with Princess Vivi if she had to guess.

She only knew so much about Naruto such as his attack on Marineford 32 years before which she could honestly say she was happy with after her past with the group. He had then vanished off the face of the earth though she was one of the few that knew he had returned under a decade ago by joining with some group that apparently wanted her if what Naruto was saying was true. Of course her bad past stopped her from agreeing especially when she knew if she did betray them, as was her usual action, she may not actually escape like she had all the other times she betrayed someone.

If only things were much simpler in the world then she could possibly have all of the things Naruto spoke of, but of course the world was a dirty place and you had to do what you could to survive, even if that meant betraying your current employer. "Very well…"

XxXxX

Operation Utopia was the name of the project designed by Crocodile which consisted of taking over the Alabasta Kingdom's throne via overthrowing King Nefertari Cobra and taking the ancient weapon Pluton hidden somewhere in Alabasta. The plan was impressive since Crocodile had managed to turn the country against itself. Of course that was only because no one had a single idea of what was going on whilst Crocodile played them all.

Nico Robin had explained to him the basics of how Crocodile had gotten to the point he was currently at. Surprisingly it was easy to get the information from her, she more or less told him everything that she knew without preamble. When they had departed she had told him he owed her which just made him amused that she had unintentionally implied they would meet again. He only hoped that she found nakama, preferably the Straw Hats.

Anyway, Crocodile's step by step plan went like this…

Step 1: Crocodile had won the heart of the people through the use of public appearances as one of the Shichibukai, becoming a hero to the people by rounding up other pirates. This made it so that no one suspected that he was the mastermind behind everything.

Step 2: Baroque Works secretly used Dance Powder to cause the capital city to have abnormally high amounts of rain. The people didn't suspect a thing until it was noticed that other cities were getting below normal rainfall.

Step 3: Baroque Works agents brought Dance Powder into the country and when questioned, they said it was a delivery for the king.

Step 4: Baroque Works assigned several of its members to join the royal guard to aid in smuggling Dance Powder into the palace. When the powder was found, this pushed the people into thinking their king was behind the lack of rain. By this time, the younger citizens of Yuba were beginning to form ideas of rebellion.

Step 5: To make sure the rebellion was pushed forward, several Baroque Works members joined their ranks, even going so far as to become close officers to Kohza, a childhood friend of Vivi, who had become their leader.

Those five steps had already come and gone, whilst those plans had no use to him now it did give some insight into just how Crocodile had come to such a point. However, Robin had been unable to tell him much more in-depth as she didn't truly know despite being Vice-President of Baroque Works. What she had told him though that given Crocodiles style he would most likely have the rebels and the royal family tricked into fighting each other.

Despite what he had been told about the plan, Crocodile and the Baroque Works, there was nothing he could really do without interfering with the Straw Hats who he had all decided would deal with the big stuff. All he could do was sit back and watch though he wouldn't stand by and do nothing if they needed his help.

XxXxX

**_Time Until Operation Utopia: 1 Hour_**

"Smoker-san, why Rainbase?" Tashigi asked her superior officer as they sat within what looked like a small café.

"WE CAN DRINK WATER NOW, USOPP!" A certain Straw Hat Luffy shouted as he entered the same café, though the two Marines didn't notice, yet.

"WA-DUH!" Usopp exclaimed as he gasped for water, looking around with desperation.

"I just…feel it…" Smoker grunted out with a sigh, the usual twin cigars still in his mouth. "Something smells in this country! I feel a huge shadow behind all of this." He finished cryptically and forebodingly.

"GIVE US WATER LADY!"

"BARRELS! FIVE BARRELS OF WATER!"

Tashigi looked at her commander with a frown. "But are you sure it's Crocodile and his organization?"

"WATER!"

"I can't say I'm sure…" Smoker conceded though his eyes remained narrowed as he looked to his right where a certain duo was drinking from two large barrels. "We can't find any connection between the Straw Hat Crew and the princess either. All we can do it wait until something starts to happen…"

"Mmmmmm, great water, dammit!" Luffy exclaimed as he placed his barrel down.

"Yeah, mmmm, dammit!" Usopp did the same with his barrel before looking at Luffy. "Okay, let's bring the rest of the water to them…" Usopp trailed off as he looked over Luffy's shoulder to see Smoker and Tashigi staring back at them. "…Shit!"

XxXxX

"The Straw Hats are finally here. And they've got the Marines back on their ass. They ran into Smoker again." Naruto said to himself as he stood up from the roof was on top of. "Seriously, how have they survived this long?"

A tendril of water broke off from his body and splashed onto the ground which began to grow upwards until a perfect clone of Naruto stood beside him. "**Mizu Bunshin**, one of my favourite techniques, though it's much better when I have a large source of water." Naruto grinned as he jabbed a finger at the group. "They'll likely split up, watch over Vivi, she isn't a fighting type and Baroque Works will be after her."

Clone Naruto gave a small salute. "Got it, boss."

Naruto grinned as the clone jumped away before he turned his attention back to the group, Luffy in particular. "Let's see what you can do."

XxXxX

As the group came upon Rain Dinners, Sanji spoke up despite the chaos. "This isn't good. We should split up."

Everyone nodded in agreement. "Then we'll all meet back up at Crocodile's!" Luffy said before he launched himself in the air with his powers and pulled his eyelid at Smoker. "Come and get me Smokey!"

Smoker launched himself into the air with his own **Moku Moku no Mi** powers, "Don't think you're getting away this time! **Howaito Bain!"** (White Vine) Smoker wrapped his smoky appendage around the mid-air Luffy's body and held him in place, constricting him painfully.

Luffy though knew how to get out of it and rapidly inhaled through his mouth. **"Gomu Gomu no Fūsen!"** (Gum Gum Balloon) Luffy's body instantly expanded and broke Smoker's grip on him, sending both of them forcefully away from one another as Luffy crash landed in a camel pen and quickly fled the scene.

XxXxX

Nami and Usopp were running together through the streets when Nami pointed ahead. "Look! There's the entrance to Rain Dinners! It's built in the middle of a lake?" She shouted in amazement and shock.

Usopp looked around in worry as they ran. "No one else is here yet?"

A few Baroque Works operatives saw them running from ahead which they soon noticed. "Take aim and fire! Those two are the first two!"

Usopp and Nami panicked at the sight of the men pointing rifles at them, but before anything could happen a black cloaked figure dropped down in between and the two Straw Hats instantly recognized him when they saw the remarkable trident-like weapon on his back. Instead of using that though, the man they knew as Uzumaki Naruto reached to his left under his cloak and brandished his gun, the Blue Rose.

Blue Rose was a unique revolver with an over and under barrel style; this design allowed it to fire two magnum rounds with each pull of the trigger. The Blue Rose seemed to be a heavily modified Smith and Wesson Model 500 double-action revolver, albeit with a traditional 6-shot cylinder as opposed to the M500's 5-shot cylinder. Further modifications the gun had were targets sights, porting on each barrel to reduce recoil and muzzle flip, a six-shot cylinder rather than the five-shot, and the obvious extra barrel allowing for a double shot. The cylinder had also been modified to release on the right to reload rather than the usual left, as Naruto would shoot with his left hand. The gun also had a moulded wooden grip and an intricate rose design carved into the gun.

Before Nami or Usopp could blink Naruto had already taken aim and fired upon the unfortunate soldiers that cried out in agony as they each received two bullets to the chest that actually caved their ribs in from the force, though if one were to look closely they would see no bullets or shells lying about but just holes in the peoples chest with some liquid around the edges. _'Combing water and **Haki **as bullets, ingenious, but very tricky.' _

"So you made it after all, Naruto-kun?" Nami smiled at him as he turned to face them whilst holstering his gun.

"Oh? I get a –kun now?" He grinned, lifting his head enough to show them. "This is all I can do now without raising too much alarm. It's all up to you guys." With a two fingered salute, water wrapped around his body before he vanished.

"I gotta admit, he's growing on me." Nami grinned, not ashamed to admit it as Usopp laughed nervously, somewhat intimated by how quickly and easily Naruto had killed the Baroque Workers.

"Y-Yeah, not scary whatsoever." Usopp wasn't sure who he was trying to convince more.

Rapid footsteps stopped Nami from replying as Zoro ran up to them, looking around at the fallen Baroque Works members. "Whoa, what happened here?" He asked, taking notice of the blood pooling around them.

"Zoro!" Nami yelled in anger. "Weren't you with Vivi?"

"Yeah, I let her go ahead." Their swordsman said with a confused frown. "Isn't she here yet? She might be inside already."

"Then we have to hurry." Nami said with a determined look about her. _'Naruto-kun trusts us to defeat Crocodile and Baroque Works, I don't why but I feel like he's testing us. Either way we have to stop Crocodile.'_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Luffy screamed as he ran straight towards them.

"LUFFY!" Usopp shouted in some relief.

"Moku Moku's chasing me! Let's go everybody!" Smoker was hot on his heels the entire time. "Run inside, run! Just you wait! Crocodile!" He yelled as Nami, Usopp and Zoro began to follow him.

XxXxX

"Vivi and the pirates…are in this town?" Crocodile asked his Vice-President.

Nico Robin smiled at him. "Yes…I've just got word from the millions."

"Hahahahahaha! Bring those insignificant rats in to see me!" Crocodile ordered with a large smile, excited to see what the pirates had to offer.

"Sure." Robin answered. _'Let's see Uzumaki Naruto, if you placed your trust in the right person.'_

XxXxX

_Inside Rain Dinners_

"CROCODILE! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!" Luffy screamed at the top of his voice. "COME ON!"

Nami smacked Luffy in the back of the head with an angry/frustrated look. "How is that going to get him to come out you dumbass? He's the hero of this country; do you want to make the customers of this place to be your enemies too?"

"Fine!" Luffy exclaimed with exasperation that caused Nami to grow a tick mark. "So…what do we do?"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Usopp exclaimed with a worried look. "Without Vivi, we don't know who Crocodile is!"

"Where is Vivi anyway?" Nami asked before the three of them spun around with their arms up.

"VIVI! CROCODILE!" The three all yelled at the top of their voices, Nami herself, ignoring her own advice.

Zoro, who had been forgotten, stood behind them with a deadpan expression. "Oi."

One of the employees of the casino walked over to a man in a suit. "Assistant manager, some strange people are here…"

The assistant manager frowned at the employee. "Tell security to get rid of them, don't let them cause a ruckus."

Before anything else could hope to be done, the doors of the casino were kicked open as Smoker charged in. "I've got you now, Straw Hat!" He shrugged off the people trying to restrain him and carried on towards Luffy. "This place is on a lake! There's nowhere for you to go now!"

"Crap, not again…." Luffy mumbled just before taking off in a sprint around the casino, knocking aside the security guards sent out to escort him out.

"Bring them into the VIP room." Nico Robin ordered, watching Luffy run around with amusement. "Crocodile's orders." She continued seeing the assistant manager hesitate.

"Hey, look at that!" Usopp exclaimed to the crew who all stopped to see a red carpet roll out from the VIP room with several attendants bowing and gesturing to the door from the sides of the carpet.

"Right this way please. This is the VIP room."

Nami glared at the door. "Is he saying to bring it on?"

Zoro laughed with anger and eagerness. "What a clever guy."

"Come on, let's go already!" Luffy ran down the carpet and through the door. "Hey what does VIP mean?" The rest of the crew ran inside after him.

"VIP? What do they have to do with Crocodile?" Smoker asked thin air before chasing after them into the VIP room.

XxXxX

Naruto frowned from where he was seated on top of a large tree that overlooked much of the plaza surrounding the casino. _'So Robin-chan has a Devil Fruit called the **Hana Hana no Mi** (Flower-Flower Fruit), a powerful ability.'_ He had just witnessed Vivi being surrounded by Billions, with no way of escaping only to be saved by a man called Pell, one of the commanders of the Alabasta guard and the strongest fighter in Alabasta.

He had flown to Rainbase after Carue's arrival in order to scout via his Zoan Devil Fruit powers that turned him into a falcon. Pell however was defeated by Miss All-Sunday and Vivi was taken to the Rain Dinners basement where he was sure Luffy and the others were being held. Having already relinquished his water clone, he stood up knowing that from where he was right now he couldn't see what was going on and since he now knew how powerful and dangerous Robin was herself, he couldn't take the risk that the Straw Hats could get out of whatever trap they were in, especially with Crocodile being there as well.

_'What better way to introduce myself to my potential crew member than barging into his basement and freeing the Straw Hats.'_

Stepping off of the tree, he fell to the ground and began to make his way into Rain Dinners where he could see a larger pile of beaten down bodies littering the streets around Rain Dinners, "Man, Sanji and Chopper sure took care of things out here, hm?" He looked away from the casino into the distance. "I get the feeling Crocodile's plan is already underway, if so we can't waste much time. I have to get these guys out of here."

"Naruto-san!" Naruto looked back to see Sanji heading towards him.

"Sanji, did you get rid of the guys after you?" Naruto asked before he heard rapid footsteps.

"GET HIM!"

"SHOOT THAT BLONDE BASTARD!"

Sanji grinned and scratched the back of his. "Not really, I was going to do it here while none of the crew are here and then trick Crocodile to come out and go save the others." He shrugged at Naruto's questioning look. "They always get captured, and with marimo there I'm not surprised half the time."

Naruto chuckled slightly at that. "Stick to whatever plans you have, but I'll save the others. This is also part of my plan…to build a crew."

XxXxX

"So it's already begun…" Zoro muttered with a grave look whilst Usopp looked afraid and Luffy just angry, gnashing his teeth together.

Nami was horrified after hearing Crocodile revealing his plan to the Straw Hats and Vivi who had not long arrived with Robin. "What an evil plan!"

"Hahahaha…" Crocodile laughed as he stood on one side of a table whilst Vivi was seated on the other side. Robin was stood at the end. "What do you think, Miss Wednesday? The plan that you helped set up is blooming…if you listen clearly I bet you can hear the shouting all over Alabasta! And what do you suppose all of them believe? That we will protect them…hahahaha!"

"STOP IT!" Vivi screamed with tears in her eyes. "HOW CAN YOU BE SO AWFUL?"

Crocodile closed his eyes as he laughed. "Hahahaha! Isn't that a little tearjerker? Love for one's country is what will destroy it in the end!"

"I think this guy fits the definition of 'depraved' to the latter." Zoro pointed out.

"That bastard! If only this cage weren't here!" Luffy growled, pissed off with the smug attitude of Crocodile and the situation itself.

"Haha…I can remember all the hassle I had to go through to get this far." Crocodile began to count off his remaining hand. "Collecting members, scraping up money to buy the silver necessary to produce the Dance Powder. Stirring up towns on the brink of destruction, teaching my employees how to carry out false acts or army corruption. Slowly eroding the people's trust in their king and increasing their frustration. Do you understand why I want to control your country so badly, Miss Wednesday?"

"As if I could understand what goes on in that disgusting mind of yours!" Vivi spat out before launching herself to the side, throwing the chair with her as her arms were tied around it. "Damn..." She muttered, angry at barely getting anywhere.

"Whoa there, what do you think you're doing, Miss Wednesday?" Crocodile asked with a smirk.

"WE CAN STOP YOU!" Vivi screamed at him as she continued to struggle forward along the ground. "WE CAN STILL MAKE IT IN TIME! IF WE JUST GO TO ALUBARNA, DIRECTLY EAST OF HERE…! IF WE CAN GET TO ALUBARNA BEFORE THE REBELLION DOES, THERE'S A CHANCE THAT WE COULD STOP THEM!"

"Ohh, isn't that odd?" Crocodile asked rhetorically with that same arrogant smirk on his face. "We were just going to go there, as well. _Straight _to Alubarna, to ask your daddy one little question!"

"What?" Vivi looked at the Shichibukai member with horror. "Now what are you going to do to my father, huh?"

"Huh? Which is more important to you Princess Vivi? The people or your father? Haha, Miss Wednesday, if you want to come with us, then go right ahead…" Crocodile held up a key for them all to see.

"Key…?" Vivi blinked in shock. "Is that…"

"A KEY? FOR THIS CAGE?" Luffy yelled at Crocodile. "GIMME THAT, DAMMIT!" To further Luffy's anger, Crocodile threw the key just as a door opened up in the floor. "AAAAAH!" He yelped as the key dropped into the hole.

"A…pit…?" Vivi looked into the pit to where the key had dropped to the middle of a room surrounded by an aquarium.

Crocodile smirked at look of devastation on the princess's face. "Go get it, Miss Wednesday." He implored with a gesture to the pit. "Of course the battle raging between the army and rebellion can be stopped. There are about eight hours left until the true killing begins, but by then it would be too late. It would still take longer than that to get to Alubarna, never mind retrieving the key and freeing your friends." He laughed as he sensed a small amount of killer intent from Vivi. "If you want stop the fighting, you'll have to leave here right now. Abandon your friends Miss Wednesday, or else, hundreds of thousands will perish! Of course, it's your choice whether or not you save these fools. You can go and open and the cage, oops, if only I hadn't dropped the key through that hole in the floor, though."

Vivi gulped at the very thought since she'd since what was down there. "Into the Bananadile lair…?"

Crocodile shrugged. "You could call it that."

"Bananadile?" Luffy questioned with a confused frown. When he looked over to one of the windows he saw a strange sight in the water surrounding them. "Whoa! Whoa, look at that! There's a crocodile growing out of that Banana!"

"Th…those crocodiles are enormous!"

"Wha…? This room is underwater?"

"Weird bananas."

"Look at them dumbass. The bananas are growing out of the crocodiles. They're weird crocodiles."

"Aah!" Vivi exclaimed as she watched a bananadiles swallow up the key in the pit. "It swallowed the key…"

"What's wrong, Vivi?" Luffy asked through the bars.

"One of the bananadiles…just swallowed the key!" She answered with wide-eyes.

"Whaaaat? Chase it down, make it spit it back up and get us the hell outta here!" Luffy shouted at the princess.

"I can't do that!" Vivi screeched back. "Bananadiles are ferocious! They eat sea kings, you know? It'll eat me up the second I get close to it!"

Crocodile sighed as if he was sorry, which he clearly wasn't. "Ohhh, I'm very sorry. Those guys think everything I throw down there is food and eat it. And besides, now you can't even tell which one ate the key, what a pity."

"What?" Nami exclaimed, pissed off with Crocodile. "That jerk!"

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he gripped one of his swords. "Damn, even if we get out of this cage, we still have to deal with those reptilles…"

Luffy glanced at his nakama with a raised eyebrow and pointed out the obvious. "Jeez Zoro, we can't get out 'cause the big bastard ate the key, dummy."

"I KNOW THAT!" Zoro snapped.

"Well then…we're going to take our leave now." Crocodile said as he and Nico Robin turned to leave just as the large doors opened up. "Also, this room will automatically destroy itself in one hour. I have no use for this Baroque Works secret base anymore. Water will flood into this room and turn it into part of the Rainbase Lake." He held his arms out in a grand gesture. "One million innocent civilians or four worthless pirates with no future ahead of them? Your chances of saving just one of the two are slim. The 'bet' here is your feelings Miss Wednesday. Do you like gambling? Hahahahahaha!"

"Even a princess is powerless in circumstances such as these." Robin said with her everlasting smile.

"It was easy to do my work here. There are so many idiots…especially those young rebels and a certain old hole-digging man." Crocodile laughed as he received their attention once more. "Did you really think sandstorms could strike the same place perfectly all of the time?" He held up his had to show them his power as a miniature sandstorm formed on the palm of his hand.

"I'll kill you!" Vivi owed as she pictured Mr Toto digging.

"Aah, the waters coming up!" Usopp exclaimed as water spurted from the ground and a bananadile appeared on the same floor as them, having come from the doorway Crocodile and Robin had opened.

"If you're going to abandon them then now's the time do it Miss Wednesday. You want to stop the rebellion, yes?" Crocodile grinned.

"It's enormous…" Vivi muttered with wide eyes of fear.

"Relax." A familiar voice sounded from her right just as a hand touched her shoulder. Vivi looked up with wide eyes to see Naruto somehow stood there. "It's going to be just fine."

"Naruto…" Vivi whispered softly feeling so much relief that she felt like she was going to burst.

"NARUTO!" Luffy yelled with a giant smile that must have hurt his cheeks.

"Looks like he came after all." Zoro chuckled to himself.

"Phew, we're saved…THANK YOU!" Usopp yelled quite comically, waving his hands with tears rolling down his face.

"Poseidon…" Smoker growled, speaking for the first time since Crocodile had first spoke.

"Naruto-kun…thank god…" Nami whispered in relief. They may not have known each other for long, but the Straw Hats were beginning to see Naruto as someone they could trust as going by his strength, a great ally.

_'So, he came to save them after all, hm?'_ Robin thought with the same smile plastered on her face.

Crocodile frowned at the newcomer. "How did you enter here? The doorway by the stairs is only way in and those have been sealed shut."

Naruto smirked as he knelt down behind Vivi and pulled the ropes off her that had tied her hands together. Standing up, he pointed at a panel in the floor where water was slowly leaking in. "The moment you let the water in this room, you opened the door for me…so to speak."

Crocodile stared at him for a moment before smirking. "So, the legendary Poseidon, it's an honour to actually meet you, like many others I imagined you were dead, until my associate here Miss All-Sunday confirmed you were alive." He stared at Naruto hard though. "But do you expect me to believe you came from that small panel in the ground never mind not being attacked by the bananadiles?"

Naruto shrugged as Vivi stood up behind him whilst the bananadile moved closer to them. "I could care less what you believe, if you know who I am then you know of my abilities. Is it that crazy to believe I came up through that as water when you can turn into sand in a whim?" He shook his head as water enveloped his right hand. **"Wōtā Suraisā!" **(Water Slicer) With barely a flick of his wrist, a thin crescent of water struck the bananadile right down the middle stopping its movements entirely before there was a noise like goo ripping apart before the creature split into two, both parts falling to either side with Crocodile and Robin on the other side of the creature.

"Whoa." Luffy, Usopp and even Nami muttered as they gawked at the gigantic creature bleeding profusely on the ground with its smelly and fishy gut splayed about on the ground.

Reaching into the left side of his cloak, he withdrew Blue Rose and aimed it at Crocodile. "It's almost sad to see a man like yourself with so much power using it to destroy civilization instead of helping it grow." Changing targets, he pointed the gun at the lock on the sea-stone gate. "Move out of the way guys." He told the Straw Hats and even Smoker. When they moved he pulled the trigger which shot off two extremely fast blasts of his **Haki**-water bullets which blew the part of the gate off.

Luffy moved to the gate quickly and pushed it which did indeed push it open making him grin. "Woohoo, we're free!"

The others would've have celebrated more if Naruto hadn't held up a hand to them. "Stay where you are, that goes for you too Smoker. Crocodiles out of your league right now, having you behind those bars will protect for the meantime where he can't touch you."

"What?" Luffy exclaimed in disbelief. "We need to kick his ass and get to Alubarna!"

"Uzumaki's right." Smoker grunted, sounding disgusted just by agreeing with him. "We're on a time limit before that water pours in more, if a fight starts out now then you may as well give up now."

Naruto grinned and holstered Blue Rose. "A battle down here would be a little too one-sided, in my case obviously, so maybe it would be best if you went on your way Crocodile."

Crocodile bit down into his cigar at being talked down to but as he looked around to see him surrounded by water with the renowned Poseidon – 'Ruler of the Sea' and the 'World's Most Wanted Pirate' in front of him, he knew not to push it.

"Rrring…rrring…rrring…rrring…"

Robin reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a Baby Den Den Mush, only capable of contacting comrades' close-by, which was ringing. "Phone call…" She murmured before clicking the side of it. "What?"

_"Hello?" _A familiar, but distorted voice came over the line which caught the Straw Hats and Naruto's attention. _"Hello? Can you hear me?"_

"Yes, I can. You're 'millions' aren't you?" Robin answered and questioned.

_"Hey, is this getting through? I ain't never used one of these crappy small phone snails…hello?"_ The voice sounded slightly frustrated.

"What is it?" Robin asked through gritted teeth.

_"Oh. Okay, I'll just talk like this."_

"Hey! Spit it out already! What happened?" Crocodile snapped to the snail phone.

_"Oh, that voice…I recognise that voice from somewhere before…*cough*…welcome sir, this is the Shitty Restaurant. _

"Shitty Restaurant…?" Crocodile murmured in realization, remembering the call they got from Little Garden that was pretending to be Mr. 3 telling them a false report.

_"Ah, it's seems you remember me, I'm so glad…"_

Crocodile grit his teeth. _'All four of the Straw Hats should be locked up in that cage…or they were before Poseidon blew the lock. But, does this mean there are others?'_

"Hey, did you hear that?" Luffy asked his crew in surprise.

"Shitty Restaurant…" Nami murmured in equal shock. "Sounds like..."

"Sanjimmphh!" Usopp quickly placed a hand over Luffy's mouth to stop the idiot from revealing there other member.

"Wait, Luffy!" Usopp whispered urgently. "Maybe he doesn't know about him…"

Vivi's mouth opened in surprise as she heard a part of what Luffy had said. _Sanji-san…that's right, Sanji-san and Tony-kun are still outside.'_

Naruto smirked as he realised it was also Sanji on the phone snail. He had been wondering where Chopper and he and vanished too since he hadn't seen them in a while.

Robin who had also heard part of what Luffy said an understood it, smiled though Crocodile remained oblivious from being in his thoughts. "Who the hell're you?" Crocodile demanded.

_"Me?" _The phone snail spoke. _"I am, Mr. Prince."_

Crocodile frowned at the short answer. "I see, Mr. Prince. And where are you?"

_"Can't tell ya. If I do, you'll come to kill me, won't you? Well, whether or not you can actually do remains to be seen doesn't it? I give out of info easily…and I'm not an idiot…unlike you, Mr. 0."_ There was silence for a moment. _"I hear you have my crew by the way, very well, I'll just be…"_ There was a pause before the sounds of fighting and crashing came through before heavy breathing. _"Hah…hahh…pesky bastard…"_ A different voice sounded through the phone making the Straw Hats eyes to widen whilst Naruto's narrowed and Crocodile smirked. _"Hello? Hah…haha…what should we do with this weirdo? RRGH!"_

Vivi leaned forward out of instinct as she heard a pained yell. "Sanji-san? No…"

Naruto grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to him knowing she was very vulnerable in the current situation. "Stay where you are. We're not out of this yet." He whispered to her.

"Where are you? Spit it out!" Crocodile demanded.

_"Yes sir, at the front gate of the casino called Rain Dinners in Rainbase."_

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Crocodile laughed gleefully. "Fine, let's go to the front gate."

"Are you sure?" Robin asked. "The millions still don't know who their boss is."

Crocodile shook his head as they moved over to the staircase leading upstairs. "I'm not going as their boss. We haven't showed ourselves to anyone other than the number agents. What's so odd about Crocodile the casino owner coming up to the front door to see what in the world is going on?"

"Very well." Robin nodded as they reached the stair case and began to climb up.

Crocodile turned to face the group half way up. "Oh, I almost forgot about you people. Since you're all such loyal friends, you can die together." A blade of sand formed around his right hand which he slashed at the stairs with. **"****Dezāto Supāda!"** (,Desert Sword) The blade of sand expanded and cut straight through the stair case, from one side to the other which caused the bottom part of the stairs to crumble in on themselves and leaving a very large gap that would not be possible to reach.

Crocodile looked at Naruto and saluted with his hook, mockingly. "It's a shame you have to die here; it would've been fun killing you." With that, Robin and he left.

Naruto just smirked up at where they left through the large double doors. _'Clearly he forgot water doesn't bother me, well saltwater does, I've got the same weakness as any other Devil Fruit user, but I can just create a bubble of water around me and swim through it…but, there's more than just me this time.'_

"The waters rising higher!" Zoro shouted in alarm, getting their attention as they looked at the panels where it was coming up much faster.

"What the hell are we going to do now?" Nami asked, quite fearfully.

"IT'S UP TO MY KNEES! MY KNEES!" Usopp screamed.

Naruto picked Vivi up and trudged over to the cage. "You need to get close to me if you want to survive this."

Everyone turned to face him and Smoker actually looked pale at the thought of receiving help from him. The cage may be open now thanks to him but he could feel the salt in the sea water affecting him. "How will that help?" Nami asked.

"I can use my water to surround us all in a bubble and carry us through the sea water, but with this many of us I need us all to be close together. I'm not immune to sea water, I get weak in the knees like every other Devil Fruit user but if I use my water to coat me in a bubble then I can swim through it. Same rules apply in this case only you guys won't be able to breath." Naruto explained as the water rose.

"Ugh…" Smoker grunted, looking like he was going to be sick.

"AHHHH! IT'S UP TO MY THIGHS!" Luffy screamed.

"Ok." Nami appeared at Naruto's side, hugging his arm to her which made him chuckle slightly as he saw her shivering. On the other side of him, Vivi did the same knowing there was no other way out, though the fact that he was very handsome certainly didn't hurt her decision.

"Grab on now!" Naruto shouted at them all.

"Guess we've got no choice." Zoro muttered. One by one they all moved over to him and either grabbed him or one of the others and moved closer. Everyone except for Smoker that is.

Naruto sighed at Smoker but couldn't blame him in all honesty, he was his enemy at the end of the day. "You can either grab on or die Smoker. I don't want to leave you down here to die, but it's your choice."

With great reluctance that made it almost look painful, Smoker nodded. "Fine." He grunted before grabbing onto one of the others shoulder so that they were all now very close and touching a shoulder or arm.

"Good." Naruto nodded, beginning to feel the sea waters effects. **"Wōtā Rokku!"** (Water Lock) Water sprung from different parts of Naruto's body and lifted them all up so not a single part of them was touching the sea water. "Hold your breath." The water that lifted them then quickly surrounded them in the form of an orb filled of water, though it had no effect on the Devil Fruit users just like Naruto had said.

_'Now I have to get us above ground while they can hold their breaths.'_

XxXxX

**_Moments Earlier_**

**_Outside Rain Dinners_**

Crocodile looked around the front of Rain Dinners where bodies were piled up and spread out, basically covering any ground from the naked eye. "What the hell…happened here?"

Robin also looked around the scattered bodies with some amusement at how easily their forces had been taken down. "With this added to what Pell the Falcon did, all of our millions in town have been wiped out…quite easily I might add."

Crocodile grit his teeth his teeth as he walked over to a downed million that was just barely conscious. "What happened? Who did this?"

The downed million with blood smeared on his face, squinted up at Crocodile. "This guy…he called himself Mr. Prince…he left towards the south, through town…"

"Just now?" Crocodile asked, looking around. As he looked, he found a cloaked person running away. "Him! Piece of shit, don't think you'll get away from me!"

Robin shook her head. "Why don't you let him go?"

"Be silent!" Crocodile growled at her. "He killed all of my employees. I will not be humiliated like this!" He growled as his legs turned to sand and he shot forward, flying along the ground.

Sanji from an alley way smirked as he saw Crocodile chase 'Mr. Prince', though he looked at Rain Dinners when he saw the bridge collapse into the lake beneath it. _'Naruto-san said he'll take care of everything earlier, I'll have to trust him.' _ With a sigh, he took out a cigarette and placed it between his lips and lit it with a match. Taking a drag from it, he blew out the smoke from it and leant back against the wall.

Crocodile stopped where he last saw the cloaked man, his legs reforming back into their solid form. "Where are you?" He looked around but could see no one resembling the man he was chasing. "I will find you and I will kill you."

A cloaked and smaller version of Chopper walked past Crocodile towards Rain Dinners. "Heh…heh…worked like a charm…"

XxXxX

The orb of water that contained the Straw Hats, a princess and a Captain of the Marines, rose up from the lake around Rain Dinners at the town where there surprisingly no railing in the way. Naruto allowed the orb to open up so he could place Nami and Vivi, who were still clinging to him but struggling to breathe, on the street before doing the same with the others, though Smoker and Zoro threw themselves onto the street with a 'thud' since they didn't want to be manhandled in such a way, Smoker more so.

Sanji, having seen them pulling themselves out, ran over to them and bent down to Luffy who was spitting water out. "You alive their Luffy?"

"He should be fine." Naruto answered, now actually sat on the water which made Sanji's eyes wide. "He was only in normal water, or my water to be more precise, he's probably just out of it slightly from lack of oxygen."

"H-How are y-you…?" Sanji pointed at Naruto sitting on the water with his arms crossed whilst everyone still had to drag themselves on to dry land, except Nami and Vivi.

Naruto shrugged with a grin. "I am water, I can change the pressure of myself and the water I use which allows me to sit on water, walk on it, fly and even in fights it comes in very handy. Plus, if I just place a layer of water on top of another source I cans it down like this." He explained. _'Though even if I fall in seawater I'll still sink, I can only travel in it by placing myself in a bubble before I enter.'_

Vivi had decided that since she was on land, she should help the others up. This was done by grabbing Usopp's long nose and ragging him, painfully. "Come on, get up Usopp-san!"

"What are you doing?" Nami asked the almost comatose Usopp. She was also helping by dragging him by his cloak. "How could you not hold your breath for a couple minutes?"

Sanji's eye sparkled at hearing that and Naruto sighed recognising a pervert when he saw one, though he would be a liar if said he hadn't eyed Nami or Vivi once or twice. Ever since the incident 32 years ago he hadn't been in any sort of relationship since he had lost everything, though he had been with a woman or two, what that meant to him he wasn't sure as at that time he had been afraid of loving someone again but now he knew that was stupid, it wasn't like you could stop loving someone.

You couldn't help who you fall in love with, or when. There were no two ways about it.

Sanji had already made his way to a soaking wet, clothes cling, Nami. "Nami-chwaaaaan, holding your breath for so long could only mean one thing-"

**_SMACK_**

"Idiot." Naruto muttered as Sanji found his face planted into the ground with an angry and blushing Nami over him wither fist still raised. "Nami-chan." He called to the orange haired girl who smiled at him as if she hadn't just pummelled her nakama. "You know I've lived a long time and in that time I learned how to control certain aspects of myself, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about." A blush and a hesitant nod were his answer. "…But not even my control is good enough when I see a beautiful woman like yourself, soaking wet and your clothes clinging to you like a second skin, that cloak hides nothing."

Nami looked down and realized what he said were true, her body was showing through the wet clothes, her nipples having gotten cold from the water had become hard enough to show clearly, having gone braless only her shirt was there to protect them, fat lot of good that did and her skin was visible, not to mention the shirt seemed to fit in every curve which made her body more pronounced. With another blush and a duck of her head to avoid Naruto, she closed her cloak, tightly.

Naruto appeared beside Nami in an impressive display of speed. "You shouldn't be embarrassed, you have no reason to be." He grinned as he leaned closer to her ear, his breath tickling her neck which caused her to shiver despite the situation they were in as their friends began to gather themselves. "You're a beautiful woman and believe an old guy like me when I say so. I've seen a lot of women naked or otherwise but seeing a healthy young woman like you like that, well it makes me feel young again." He winked at her before walking forward leaving Nami, surprisingly a babbling mess as she stared after Naruto.

Bastard, I barely know you, you're much older than me and your gathering your crew…but after getting me so aroused none of that matters right now…' Truth be told the age gap between her and Naruto didn't really bother her. It would have if he looked and acted his age, but as it was he could easily pass for someone in their late teens to there early twenties. Really, the only thing that would have turned her off to him was if he happened to be an ass, and so far the blond had been nothing but pleasant and helpful. Of course if Naruto had money or some valuable treasure on him it would just be a bonus. Good job he was a pirate and gathering a crew.

"Gah, men are so confusing." She complained, making sure to give Sanji's body a swift kick for the hell of it before going back to what she was doing before the interruption. "One day, I'll get him back and I'll make sure I leave him with a problem his hands won't be able to solve."

Vivi who had witnessed Naruto's flirting merely looked at them both in confusion. She was too young and had lived a sheltered but busy life having infiltrated Baroque Works for three years. Anything to do with sex or hormones was not required in those times so she never bothered with it whatsoever. Though she wasn't completely ignorant as she did feel something when she saw Luffy fight when they first met and later on when she saw Naruto fight and moments like the present where he was soaking wet and had that commanding presence.

She'd blame the heat if anyone asked why she suddenly had a bright red face though the way her eyes never left Naruto whilst she dragged Usopp one might think differently.

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><p><strong>To Be Continued in the Next Chapter – Chapter 3: Going Two Rounds With Crocodile<strong>

**Anyway I hope you guys liked this story and chapter. **

**R&R…let me know what you think, questions, comments. Be sure to let me know.**


	3. Going Two Rounds With Crocodile

Joshnaruto back again a new story

Thank you everyone for your reviews and I will now answer some of them:

**Storylover213:** The pairing will most likely be Nami, Robin and a couple others he'll meet on his way. I don't want to make the harem too big because I want these girls to be his girlfriend's instead of girls he can just kiss and fuck when he feels like. Though Nami is a flirt straight off the bat so getting with her isn't too hard, and Robin likes old things aka Naruto so it's all good. If you or anyone else have an idea let me know. Also my other stories are on hiatus at the moment. If you read my authors note on the first chapter then you'll understand. I'm focusing on this at the moment.

**GaijinSamurai:** That's how I felt at first; water is a confusing and hard element to choose when you think of all the other people devil fruit. But when you think about water is so much more than just the water from a tap or the sea. Water is essentially EVERYTHING in the world. I may have used Avatar the Last Airbender wiki to get some help and other sites though.

**inuboy86:** Those women, he will get with them at some point. Naruto isn't some manwhore in this so be at peace.

**Psudocode Samurai:** To answer your query, Naruto was born in the One Piece world. At some point I may bring in the Elemental Countries but they will be a continent in the One Piece world.

**Brady10: **Yes, people from the Narutoverse will appear. It would be boring if they didn't. However, there will be many of them that are dead and will only be shown in flashbacks. You could say Naruto's old crew housed most of them. The older characters though will most be in the present story line for other purposes.

**ArtanisRose: **My feelings exactly about the Straw Hat crew. Marguerite is an excellent choice so she might be a part of his crew at a later date but I don't think I'll be able to have Smoker and Tashigi despite them being kinda good guys.

**Liger01:** Yes you're right, ironically just after I posted my previous chapter I read up on the effects and it explained it all: "**Oda stated in SBS that Devil Fruit users are susceptible to all types of water, not just seawater. He elaborated on this, saying that "moving" water, like rain or waves, does not weaken Devil Fruit users, while standing water does. Oda also said in SBS that it isn't until a Devil Fruit user is knee deep in water that they become immobilized, this is seen with the Gorgon sisters and Luffy in Boa Hancock's bath."**

**Note:**This story does follow the manga/anime and the only reason I'm doing it so much now is to get the story started, eventually or soon the story will focus more on Naruto though when he meets the Straw Hats it will follow the manga/anime as much as possible then. The Luffy/Crocodile fights are basically from the manga and anime so if you've read or watched them they'll probably similar. They are also similar to Kenchi's ones since he did the same so hopefully they aren't too similar

I hope you all enjoy this story and chapter and I'd like to thank pokemaster12 for reading it over, your help is much appreciated.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own Naruto or One Piece.

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><p><strong><span>The Poseidon – The Worlds Most Wanted Pirate<span>**

**Chapter 3: Going Two Rounds With Crocodile**

"This way, hurry!"

Smoker stared at the Straw Hat crew after being pulled out of the destroyed resort Rain Dinners, which Crocodile had sunken to the bottom of the lake it was situated on to finish them all off. Uzumaki Naruto, the one to have saved them all, including him, was also standing with the Straw Hats which proved where he had suspected his allegiance stood at the moment. He let out a sigh and waved them off. "Go." He said, allowing them to leave without a fight. "Only this time, will I let you get away. The next time we meet however you're a dead man. Remember that Straw Hat Luffy."

Naruto opened his eyes to find Smoker staring at him. "Guys, get going to Alubarna."

"What about you?" Usopp asked, having decided he could trust the former Marine killer.

"Naruto-kun! Come with us!" Nami exclaimed as they had all been ready to run.

Naruto looked at Luffy and gave him a nod. "You know what to do Luffy; don't give up, no matter what happens. You can win."

Luffy looked at Naruto just as Marines appeared on the rooftops and began to charge down the other end of the street they were on. "Are you sure?" He asked in a more serious voice.

Naruto chuckled and gesture to the Marines with their guns pointed at _him_. "I'm not going anywhere right now, unlike you guys I'm too dangerous to leave running about."

"Uzumaki Naruto, a bounty of 750 million beli, given the epithet of the 'Poseidon' and 'The Worlds Most Wanted Pirate'." Smoker spoke as if reading a file. "There's no way in hell I'm letting you go without a fight."

Naruto chuckled before looking at the stunned crew. "Get going, you have a country to save."

"Naruto-san!" Vivi shouted. "Promise we'll see you again."

Naruto grinned at her. "I promise. I'm going to save this country too remember?"

Vivi smiled at him broadly before nodding. Luffy nodded at Naruto at last before turning to his nakama. "Let's go." He said with determination, he didn't wait for an answer as he took off running but he could sense they were behind him.

"Is this right?" Nami asked with worry. "Is it safe to leave him behind with all of those Marines and Smoker?"

Luffy just grinned. "You should be asking whether or not if it's alright to leave Moku Moku and the Marines with Naruto."

Chuckles went around the Straw Hats at that.

Usopp almost stumbled though as something came to him. "Did Smoker say Naruto-san had a bounty of…750 million beli?"

They all nearly stumbled that time.

"NANI?"

XxXxX

**_Naruto vs. Smoker and Marines_**

Naruto stared after the Straw Hats as they began to vanish from sight, just seeing them so close as friends and crewmates reminded him of his own crew from his old days as a Captain with his former nakama. _'They're going to become very strong in the future, the least I can repay them for showing me kindness instead of fear for who I am is by holding off all of the Marines in the town.'_

Smoker watched as the crew took off, leaving him behind as the group of Marines came to him. "Sir, aren't you going to go after them?"

Smoker shook his head as he gripped his weapon of choice. "No, we have more pressing matters." He nodded at Naruto who remained completely still after the Straw Hats left with the princess. He ignored how all of the Marines went on alert and aimed their guns at Naruto. "Call back the men who went off to chase them, they won't catch them. Get them back here and call headquarters. Tell them to send all Marine ships in the vicinity to Alabasta."

The Marine who had been speaking to him stared in shock, "Call for reinforcements? But I don't think the superior officers will let them go to fight such a small number of pirates."

Smoker turned annoyed eyes onto the spoken man. "Since when have I listened to my superior officers' opinions? Now go!" He finished, scaring the man off to accomplish his task.

"Are you sure you want to send people away, Haku Ryō no Sumōkā?" (Smoker the White Hunter) Naruto asked,

Smoker just grunted as he blew smoke from his mouth from the cigars. "I have you completely surrounded, from the rooftops, the streets, and your every direction and then there's me in the way. You aren't escaping. Sending a couple soldiers away won't make a difference."

"You're right about that." Naruto grinned. "You could bring the entirety of the Marineford and you still won't catch me."

Smoker just grinned as he gripped his jutte. "We'll see about that." A signal with his hand caused every Marine in the vicinity with a rifle, cannon-gun or any other kind of gun, to shoot at Naruto. This consisted of about 30 Marines at the moment as most of them were being called back or otherwise knocked out by the Straw Hats.

Just like any Logia Devil Fruit user, every bullet, cannon or otherwise simply blew right through his body as it turned to water where he was struck. His healing was much quicker than the bullets though as by the time another shot was fired, the hole in his body before would've healed by then. But, considering there was a good number shooting, it was a complete mess as water was splashed all over the place. His body was covered in so much smoke and disfigured as he healed only to be blown away again, but Naruto just stood there, not flinching one bit and not showing any kinds of discomfort as he was torn apart.

Naruto shook his head as they ceased firing, his body fixing itself instantly giving it the illusion that he hadn't been touched. "What a waste of ammunition." He reached behind his back and grabbed the staff of Nejibana, bringing it out in front of him and stabbing the end into the ground which caused the ground to split apart beneath him from the force.

Holding Nejibana at Smoker, water began to spin at the tip of the middle blade of the trident end. **"Hahonryū!"** (Tearing Torrent) Just like last time he used it, a large blast of water fired which zipped across the street at breakneck speed, going so fast the buildings on either side shook and the grocery stands blew apart.

Smoker had already turned his hands to smoke and thrust them at the torrent of water, though he could tell Naruto wasn't kidding around since this was stronger than the first time he used it against him. **"Howaito Burō!"** (White Blow) A cloud of dense smoke came from his arms and met the torrent of water halfway which caused an immediate explosion of both elements, turning into a kind of vortex that reached a great height whilst spinning so fast that buildings around it began to tear apart.

The attack was too late though as Naruto had already spun around to face the dozen or so Marines that had appeared earlier just as the Straw Hats had left. His left arm erupted into water which he stabbed at a Marine with on the far end. **"Wōtā Kurasshā!" **(Water Crusher) His water enveloped arm shot out at the Marine and struck him before he could react, though before any of the others could react Naruto had swung the same arm in an arc which smashed them all brutally with the condensed water arm. All the Marines were sent flying into various buildings and were being either knocked out or actually killed depending on where they were hit and what they hit.

By now the vortex of the elements had slowly died down before vanishing all together leaving behind nothing but utter devastation. Knowing what was going to happen next thanks to his **Haoshoku Haki**, he turned his legs into water and like many other Logia fruit users, he shot up into the sky as if he was flying, though accomplishing a feat like this with water was much harder to do than other elements, since unlike smoke or sand it took a lot more effort. In which he had to use enough force to literally propel himself into the air to fly, or he could just change the weight of himself, making him as light as air so that he could float as if he had transformed into the water molecules that could often be found in the atmosphere.

Just by training with your Devil Fruit you could perfect it to the point that almost anything was possible. And since water was in essence the basis of almost everything, he could pretty much do anything that involved water in some way. This went from changing its density from as light as the air to as heavy as the bottom of the sea. Of course, that was just early stages though.

Where he had been moments earlier, Smoker stabbed at that position with his jutte and growled at his miss even though he was sure he hadn't made a sound or indication that he was about to attack. _'That damn **Haki** of his. There wasn't any indication he had received a premonition…did he receive it so fast that in reality it all happened in the blink of an eye…or faster?'_

Naruto paid no heed to him though as he now hovered just above the rooftops of the buildings that currently had Marines stationed on, the remaining Marines. Spreading his hands out with Nejibana still held in his grasp, water molecules began to solidify around him. It may have been said before and it may not have but Naruto had trained in his **Waki Waki no Mi** to such an extent that he could use the water molecules in the surrounding atmosphere, just like the oceans, lakes or sea. In fact, one of the reasons he was so good with his Devil Fruit was because he had had it for as long as he could remember, literally, since he'd had it in his first memory which was just after he received amnesia of the first five years of his life.

"What the hell is this guy?"

"He's not human!"

"Oh god, we're going to die!"

All around him, the condensed water began to shape themselves into what looked like needles. He ignored the shouting of the Marines and few bullets that passed through his body. In the end, water-shaped needles floated in the sky all around the rooftops, all aiming at the Marines. They literally filled the sky. **"Sensatsu Suishō!"** (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death) With a swing of his arms forward, every needle in the sky rained down on the Marines within a second, blurring through the sky as if teleporting. Within an instant, every Marine on the rooftops had been struck all over by the water condensed needles and simultaneously they all fell forward, dead.

Though there was no blood.

He had masterfully targeted the right points of their bodies and struck them which lead to an instant death. A moment later and the needles lost their form and splashed onto the Marines, leaving a large puddle on each rooftop.

**"Howaito Supāku!"** (White Spark) Smoker shot up at Naruto in his dense smoke form after seeing all of his men being taken down in an instant.

Naruto having sensed him coming, span in the air and turned his left leg solid just as Smoker appeared in front of him and smashed his foot into the cloud of smoke. Everything seemed to freeze for that one moment but then Smoker's current form seemed to re-solidify where Naruto's foot struck a moment before he was blasted from the sky and into the ground, sending a shockwave out which struck all the buildings causing them to topple with the Marines still on them. A pillar of smoke rose up from where he impacted with the ground, only this time it wasn't Smoker.

Naruto let himself drop down to the rubble of one the buildings and reformed both of his legs so he could land properly. With a graceful landing of just bending his knees as he touched ground, he stood up to his full height with Nejibana in hand and his cloak still on, not a piece of clothing or even hair was out of place.

_'Is this all you have Smoker?'_

XxXxX

**_Luffy vs. Crocodile_**

Luffy was lying down on the sand with his head bent back as he watched his nakama escape on top of a very large crab that Chopper had somehow gotten. From his position and way he seemed relaxed, you wouldn't believe Crocodile and Nico Robin were standing in front of him and this time they were in Crocodile's territory.

Nico Robin laughed as she watched the crab fade in the distance. "Hahaha, the princess just ran out on us."

Crocodile looked at his partner. "The agents in Alubarna should be done with their duties soon…call them." He then looked down at Luffy. "I think your games have gone on a little too long, Straw Hat Luffy."

Luffy pushed himself up so he sat cross-legged. "You know her…she's so weak, but she tries to save everything she can." He ignored Crocodiles questioning look. "She can't bear to abandon anything, so she's always in pain. She wants to stop the rebellion without having to lose anyone."

Crocodile laughed at the absurdity of it all. "Without anyone dying? There are many weak, mushy fools like that. They do not know true battle. You agree with me don't you?"

Luffy said nothing for a moment as he caught a glimpse of a large vortex of water and smoke from Rainbase rise into the sky and the ground beneath them actually shook a moment. "Yes." He finally answered. He rose to his feet. "But as long as you're alive, she will fight you to her grave. That's why I'm stopping you right here."

"Kuhahaha…hahahaha! Absolutely ridiculous. You're beyond saving. This should be a good example." Crocodile smirked at Luffy. "Those who conspire with others all die because of it. I've left hundreds like that in the dust!"

"Well then…" Luffy grinned casually as he cracked his knuckles. "I guess that makes you pretty stupid!"

Crocodile actually blinked in shock at that and grit his teeth so much a vein popped out cheek from the strain. Robin though held a hand over her mouth. "Ahahaha…"

"What's so funny?" Crocodile snapped at Robin. "Do you want to die as well, Nico Robin?"

Robin smiled unafraid. "If that's how you feel about it, do as you wish." She turned away and began walking. "What happened to your promise not to call me by that name?"

Crocodile smirked. "I guess only those…legendary pirates receive that courtesy, hm?" He questioned and Robin knew who he was talking about. "Tch, whatever. Where are you going?"

Robin didn't even glance back though she did glance into the town to see the vortex die down. "Ahead to Alubarna."

"Crazy woman…" Crocodile muttered before throwing a small hourglass at Luffy's feet as the Straw Hat Captain stared at him curiously, "I'll give you three minutes. After that I won't have the time to play with you anymore. Any problems with that?"

Luffy stood ahead of him, ready to fight at last. "Nope, that's fine with me." He cocked his fist back with his left hand holding right bicep. **"Gomu Gomu no Pistoru!"** (Gum-Gum Pistol) Luffy let off his rubber arm out in a punch, but Crocodile's body simply turned to sand and shifted out of the way. He reformed and came at Luffy with a swing of his golden hook who bent over backwards to avoid the metal appendage whilst his arm snapped back. Luffy's right leg extended into the air as he dodged. **"Gomu Gomu no Sutampu!"** (Gum-Gum Stamp) Luffy backflipped and thrusted his leg out at Crocodile, however when it hit him his body turned to sand upon impact and his leg just shot right through him.

Luffy looked shocked as his leg snapped back and he landed on his feet, panting slightly, mostly from the heat. Crocodile's body reformed again, with him seemingly not caring that he was in a fight at the moment as he blew smoke out of his mouth from his cigar. "Let me tell you something important Straw Hat. No matter what you do, you'll never, ever-."

Luffy was in no mood to listen to him as he began to punch at the air. **"Gomu Gomu no Gaturingu!" **(Gum-Gum Gatling) Luffy launched rapid-fire punches at Crocodile, each punch busting right through his sandy body in multiple blurs that just looked like holes were opening up in Crocodile's body. When the attack ended however once again Crocodile's body reformed, no worse for wear whatsoever. "Sand monster!" Luffy shouted at him in anger, rushing to attack once again.

"Listen up Straw Hat." Crocodile said lazily, sighing in annoyance. "These mosquito-bite attacks are useless against me. Because you will never, ever-."

Luffy once more in no mood to listen, thrusted his arms back a distance, as far as possible. **"Gomu Gomu no Bazūka!"** (Gum-Gum Bazooka) Luffy snapped his arms forward and punched two twin holes through Crocodile's chest, blowing a mass of sand out of the back. Luffy was not shocked or surprised at this point and shot his leg as high into the air as he could stretch it before bringing it down at high-speed. **"Gomu Gomu no Ono!"** (Gum-Gum Battle Axe)

Luffy's brutal axe kick slammed right into Crocodile and blasted the man apart giving the idea that he just vaporized the man. "Dammit dammit dammit! Did I crush you, stupid sandgator?" Luffy shouted as he stomped at the sand.

"I told you already that none of that would work." Crocodile said as he appeared behind Luffy out of nowhere.

Luffy turned around enraged. "You asshole!"

Crocodile sighed. "No matter how hard you fight rubber man… You will never defp-." He finished with a mumble when Luffy's fist burst through his face once more.

Luffy jumped back, ready for anything. "Defp? What the hell have you been trying to say?"

Crocodile stared at Luffy with murder in his eyes; veins throbbed around his eyes as he glared. "Why don't we end the games now Straw Hat Luffy?"

Luffy glared out at him. "I've _been_ fighting seriously!" He grit his teeth as he stared at Crocodile. "Damn it…I can't hit him, he keeps dissolving…"

Crocodile smirked as he put his hand back, "You and I are two pirates in two completely different leagues." Crocodile formed his right hand into a loose blade of fast-moving sand, similar to a chainsaw. **"Dezāto Supāda!"** (,Desert Sword_)_ He stabbed it into the ground and an instant later, like a torpedo, the attack shot along the ground splitting it apart.

"What?" Upon seeing the move split a rock right down the middle Luffy cartwheeled out of the way on pure instinct as the ground split apart beneath him and ended up landing on his head. "Ouch."

Crocodile grinned at the rubber man. "You sure wouldn't have been saying 'ouch' if it had hit you." He noticed Luffy marvelling at the massive rip in the desert that he had just caused. "Depending on how you use and train Devil Fruit powers they can be very strong in battle. But I'm not like the other idiots who are just content with having the power; I've honed mine to perfection! Just like everyone else, you'll wish you never stood up to oppose me!"

**"Dezāto Girasole!" **(Desert Sunflower), Crocodile stabbed his hand into the ground and in front of him the desert sunk into itself instantly, forming a pit of quicksand that started sucking Luffy in,

"What the? What what what what?" Luffy panicked as he felt himself being dragged to the centre and began to outrun the fast moving sand. "I'm…I'm being sucked down by the sand!"

Crocodile watched in amusement. "Never heard of quicksand? It's is a very convenient coffin, no grave needed. The sand is being dragged into an underground river; with my powers I can detect such a thing. There's no living being that can stand toe to toe with me in the desert." Crocodile grinned as he watched Luffy flail about.

"I WON'T BE BURIED BY SOME SAND! YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Luffy thrusted his hands high into the sky as he strained against the sand pit, **"Gomu Gomu no…"** Luffy brought his hands back down and slammed them into the sand pit. **"…Bazūka!" **(Gum-Gum Bazooka) The force of the attack on the sand threw Luffy into the sky and above Crocodile where he entwined his fingers into a net. "If I can't punch you I'll capture you! **Gomu Gomu no Ami!"** (Gum-Gum Net) Luffy stretched his fingers around Crocodile in the form of a net.

Crocodile once again simply turned to sand and drifted through it while encasing the next in sand "Don't you get it? Someone of your level can never-"

Luffy did not want to listen though. **"Gomu Gomu no Muchi!"** (Gum-Gum Whip)

Crocodile found his sandy body cut in half by a long kick by Luffy. "Tch, repeating the same old moves again huh?" Luffy fell from the air right into the range of a strike from Crocodile just as his body reformed. **"Barchan!"** (Crescent-Shaped Dune) Crocodile swung his right arm and cut through Luffy's right arm with a crescent of sand.

As Luffy hit the ground he looked at his arm in horror. "My arm! It's… Gah! My arm turned into a mummy!" Luffy's entire arm was shrivelled and dead looking.

Crocodile had a pleased look on his face, a smirk as always. "Because it's sand I sucked the water out of your arm. Maybe I should kill you by sucking the water out of your entire body… to give you a little taste of the desert."

Luffy grit his teeth. "Enough of this!" His eyes went wide a moment later. "That's it!" Luffy ran back to where he had dropped his cloak and bag earlier. "Water!" He drank his barrel and his right arm which had been dead and mummified, now was bulged with water filling it and veins protruding on it making it look quite muscular. "Hahaha, if only Naruto was here, this would be so easy."

Crocodile scoffed. "Ridiculous."

"No it isn't!" Luffy snapped at him, "The old sandy guy in Yuba spent all night digging up this water. You want to know what he said? 'Yuba will never be defeated by mere sand!' **Gomu Gomu-!"**

Crocodile rolled his eyes. "Are you still trying this? This is getting boring."

Luffy launched himself at Crocodile and bit his head off, getting a mouthful of sand. **"-no Baku** **Baku!"** (Gum-Gum Chomp Chomp)

"Enough bullshit!" Crocodile roared as he burst out of Luffy's mouth with Luffy falling back and spitting out sand. "Prepare to die…along with the fertile soil of Yuba."

Luffy spit out the leftover sand in his mouth and looked at Crocodile in confusion. "Huh?"

Crocodile kept an impassive face. "Your three minutes are up. I told you I didn't have time to play with you." A small sandstorm raged on his hand. **"Sables!"** (Sandstorm) Crocodile threw the sandstorm forward which immediately turned into twister out of sand that quickly overwhelmed Luffy. "The sand is nice and dry today." He chuckled in a taunting manner.

XxXxX

**_Rainbase_**

"Ah! A sandstorm in the sky to the east!"

"Evacuate! We'll be buried alive in the sand if we stay!"

"Wait! The wind is blowing south, it should miss us!"

Naruto listened to all of the shouting from the civilians that hadn't been caught in his and Smoker's fight as he looked at the growing twister of sand rising into the sky. "So it is Crocodile…" He looked over to see Smoker stood with his arms crossed and glaring at the twister. The man had come out of the crater he had been kicked into a minute earlier and had been about to carry on the fight when his subordinate Tashigi had caught up to them just as twister appeared.

"Luffy's fighting him." Naruto commented, looking back at the twister as he placed Nejibana on his back under his cloak.

Tashigi looked at her Captain with unease. "Smoker-san…what do we do…?"

Smoker sighed as he bit into his twin cigars. "You said Straw Hat Luffy is fighting him. Why not you?" He asked Naruto.

Naruto chuckled. "How is Luffy supposed to grow if I fight his battles for him? This is Luffy's challenge, this is their era. Old people like me are just relics of the past here to teach the current generation." He began to walk away and Smoker didn't bother stopping him. "A word of warning Smoker, hurt the people I care about…and I promise, I will kill you."

Smoker scowled as he watched Naruto turn himself into a large body of water and shoot up into the sky. "Aren't you going to stop him Smoker-san?" Tashigi asked with a frown.

Smoker shook his head as he viewed the damage their battle had caused. "It would make no difference. In our fight I didn't manage to hit him once, he was always a step ahead of me. Remember, there are times in a person's life when they must admit defeat, even when they hate it."

Tashigi looked at her superior with raised eyebrows at the implications. _'He couldn't hit him once? What kind of monster is Uzumaki Naruto?'_

XxXxX

**_Straw Hats_**

"Vivi-chan, what's wrong?" Nami asked, looking at Vivi who was staring back at where they had come from.

"There's a sandstorm." Vivi answered in a deathly whisper, eyes wide with fear. "It's right above Rainbase!"

"Huh?" Nami looked over in the direction of Rainbase to see a an ever growing twister decimate the desert. "Holy crap! Is that what Crocodile can do?"

"Yes, and Luffy-san is fighting him." Vivi bit her lips in worry. "Naruto-san is also there, what if they both get caught in it? Everyone who has been struck by Crocodile's sandstorm has died!"

"Relax." Zoro grunted from where he was seated on the giant crap, leaning against on his swords. "Luffy wouldn't let a thing like that kill him and Uzumaki has been fighting and surviving for decades. Some sand isn't going to kill either of them."

Sanji looked at Vivi with a heart in his only visible eye. "I know a way that will help you relax, Vivi- chwaaaaan!"

Nami simply punted his head into the back of the crab and left the now bleeding cook. "Perverted bastard." She shook her head and looked out to the twister. "Please be alright, Luffy, Naruto-kun."

XxXxX

**_Luffy vs. Crocodile_**

Crocodile smirked at the rubber man. "Listen Straw Hat Luffy. The prevailing winds here are always north to south. _If_ the sandstorm I've just spawned rides that wind and travels south once it's mature where do you think it will hit when it's nice and big?"

"South?" Luffy questioned.

"Yuba." Crocodile said cruelly.

Luffy launched forward and grabbed onto Crocodile's shoulders. "What the hell are you doing? Cut it out! That old sandy guy has nothing to do with you!" Luffy broke off and started chasing after the sandstorm. "Stop, damn you! STOP!"

Crocodile laughed in a slow and cruel way. "Kuhahaha…give it up. Once this wind picks up speed, even I won't be able to stop it!" He smiled cruelly. "Yuba is finished!"

"CUT IT OUT!" Luffy grabbed onto Crocodile and started yelling into his face, unmindful of the danger being so close possessed. "Stop it right no-!" Luffy stopped yelling after being stabbed with Crocodile's hook.

Crocodile lifted him off of the ground by the hook as blood dripped off the bladed side. "Who in the hell do you think I am? There are plenty of rookies who are all talk…just like you Straw Hat Luffy. The Grand Line is full of them." He looked at the sandstorm he had made. "Yuba will die. This finishing sandstorm will guarantee it. It will be the catalyst that will set off the rebels and make them more, their archaic love for others is what will bring this country down in the end. Same for you Straw Hat. You would have lived longer if you hadn't succumbed to your weaker emotions. Water…not even the water will help you."

Luffy reached up and grabbed Crocodile's arm weakly around the hook, eliciting some surprise from the man. "You're still alive?" He threw Luffy off of the hook and let him sink into the sand pit. Luffy clutched at his wound and spit up blood whilst gasping out deep breathes and screaming. "You must be in quite some pain. Don't worry it will all be over soon." He laughed at Luffy's anguish as he watched him sink beneath the sand.

He turned around when Luffy's body disappeared from sight and shook his head. "What a waste of my time."

After he had gone, Luffy's head popped up out of the pit. "MEAAAAAAAAT!"

As Luffy gasped for breath, a multitude of hands spawned from the sand and lifted Luffy out by multiplying hands after hands until Luffy was lying safely on the desert sands. Nico Robin was forced to step back as a torrent of water came down from the sky and just before it struck the ground it reformed into Naruto who kneeled beside Luffy on landing. "Damn, you look like crap." He grimaced as he saw the blood covering him. He looked up at Robin. "I'd say thanks for saving him but even with our social visits you're still the enemy, so how's it gonna be?"

Robin held up her hands. "I'm not here to kill him. I wouldn't have saved him otherwise."

Luffy looked up at Robin with bleary eyes. "…Thank you."

Robin looked down at Luffy with a passive look. "Why do you fight? All of you who carry the name of 'D'?" She frowned when Luffy just looked at her weakly. _'Just what in the world are you?'_ A hand sprouted elsewhere and threw Luffy's straw hat which she caught. "That seemed to be a pointless question. I've found you."

_'The name of 'D'?' _Naruto thought with a frown. _'Actually, now that I think about it…Gol D Roger, Monkey D. Dragon, Monkey D. Garp, Monkey D. Luffy, Portgas D. Rouge and Portgas D. Ace…what is that 'D'?_

"What has happened to Vivi-sama?" The attention of both Naruto and Robin was taken by a man in a brown star covered turban with two purple lines running down his face from his eyes. He wore a long white robe with brown stars on it.

Robin smirked upon seeing him coming towards them. "Oh, you're awake."

Pell limped towards them with his sword in his hand. "Now that I understand the nature of your powers, I will not be defeated as easily as before!"

Robin laughed softly and started walking away. "Oh, stop it. Don't get yourself any more injured than you already are. You arrived with perfect timing actually. Why don't you save that boy? He's the brave and gallant knight that escorted your princess safely here. The princess is fine, she is currently on her way to Alubarna at the moment. I don't know what will happen but you know the state that this country is in." Robin turned to Naruto as she arrived at her animal. "I hope we meet again on better circumstances Uzumaki Naruto."

Pell gripped his sword tighter as Robin left on her animal transport. He finally noticed who Robin spoke of as he looked down at Luffy. "Huh?"

Luffy grabbed onto his robe "Meat!" He stated firmly.

Naruto gazed after Robin as she left. "Women are still confusing and damnable sexy when they act mysteriously." Chuckling, he placed his hand on Luffy's chest where the hook had struck him. "Luffy, I'm going to go ahead of you to Alubarna. I believe you can beat Crocodile, don't beat yourself up just 'cause you lost once, use this fight as encouragement to try again. You're still young so don't let loses beat you up, grow stronger from them and when you cross this desert, kick his ass." He stood up whilst Luffy just managed to nod. "But, if I see it all going downhill even more, I'll beat him myself."

Naruto looked at the beaten form of Pell. "I'd appreciate it if you helped this boy get to Alubarna."

Pell blinked at the young looking man that seemed ages older. "Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto answered before he turned to water and shot to the skies again.

XxXxX

**_1 Hour Left_**

**_Alubarna_**

If one were to look at Alubarna now they would see the rebels and the royal army fighting at the large set of stairs that led into the large city and more fighting up above. Vivi's plan had failed to stop the rebels. The Straw Hat crew had split off on their arrival to lure the Baroque Works members to chase after each one whilst Vivi stayed behind, but when she had tried to stop the rebels a cannon ball had struck the gap in-between which obscured the rebels' vision of Vivi. Vivi ended up being trampled on by the horses and it was only Carue protecting her that really saved her.

But now as Naruto stood on the roof of a tall building, he knew that he couldn't interfere in the Straw Hats fights or their plan. He hated that. It was why he wanted his own crew because whilst they may be an ally or even a friend of his now, he couldn't be one of them because he was a leader, not a follower. He also knew that at this point, this was their challenge and to interfere now would not only be detrimental but damage their pride. He would only step in if things looked hopeless.

Naruto looked up on instinct just as a very large blade came down and sliced him into two though the two separate parts had water around the edges showing his Logia abilities at work. With surprising speed the sword was pulled back and he heard the sound of someone landing behind him as his body reformed. _'Not a moment of fucking peace in this place.'_

He turned around with an annoyed look to see seven people positioned all around him, some on different buildings but the one that had attacked him was right in front of him. "Is that anyway to say 'hello' to someone you just meet?"

"Save the smartass comments for after we defeat you." The one that had struck him said. He was a burly man, taller than himself and he was topless revealing his muscles. He wore black pants and black shoes. His hair was black and had five stripes of hair from his forehead to the back of his head with the rest of his being balled. In his right hand he held a massive claymore sword that would usually be used with two hands. His face held a stone-cold look.

"So…" Naruto said as he looked at them all with a bored look. "Who are you guys? You gotta give me something here because at the moment all I see are a bunch of idiots."

"Tch, arrogant bastard. That's Mr. 6 and I'm Miss Mother's Day." A woman said, pointing to the man that first spoke. She had black hair down her back, black eyes, wore a red sleeveless shirt and black trouser with black shoes. In the waistband of her pants at the back she had two guns.

"Mr. 10." A man that must've been at least 9' said. He, like Mr. 6 was very muscular, more so if anything though he wore nothing on his torso either and only had blue shorts with no shoes. He had no weapons on his person and he just smirked. He was bald too. He was basically naked if it wasn't for the shorts.

"Miss. Tuesday, handsome." The second of the four women there said with a smirk and a wink. She was admittedly beautiful with red hair in a ponytail with red lipstick and green eyes. She wore a tight white vest that displayed her body in wondrous ways, she also wore tight black pants that displayed her shapely rear, but of course, Naruto was not looking at this as this was a battle…a soon to be battle. She had knives in her belt all the way around her waist and she wore arm bands that most likely had knives in not to mention the black sleek shoes she wore.

"Sorry Miss. Tuesday, but he's mine. Miss. Thursday here, just for you." An identical copy of Miss. Tuesday said, though her clothes were the opposite. She had a black vest, white pants and white shoes. Even her body was identical. Things were bad, they were twins and sexy, he was screwed.

Not the way he'd like either.

"I'm Mr 12." Unlike the last two men, this one was slim and only around the same height as Naruto. He was a pale man with light blonde hair. He wore green slacks with an orange t-shirt and on his back were two katana.

"And last but not least, I'm Miss. Sunday." An equally attractive woman said. She had blonde hair done up in a bun, she wore a tight blue body suit that acted like a second skin with a yellow sash making her look like a ninja of sorts.

Naruto nodded as he looked at them all. "So what are you guys? Cannon fodder banded together just to give me something to do? I appreciate the gesture, I really do, but the only guy in this country worth my time is fighting someone else, or will be."

"Don't underestimate us!" Mr. 10 exclaimed, cracking his knuckles.

"Boss-sama gave us a mission to kill you, that's what we'll do." Mr. 6 said almost mechanically. Clearly he was a man that didn't go against orders.

"You're the frontier agents, right?" He got a round of nods. "And you still believe you can beat me? Wow, clearly intelligence isn't needed to be in the Baroque Works."

"I've heard enough of the crap coming out of your mouth!" Miss. Mother's Day said as she pulled her guns out from the back of waistband and held them pointed at Naruto. She was on another building so she had to aim downwards since her building was bigger.

"You clearly don't know who you're dealing with." Naruto said with a sigh. "Oh well, until the Straw Hats defeat the…_real_…agents, I've got nothing to do."

His eyes caught the sight of a blur heading towards him. He lifted a hand up just as the blur jumped and tried to drop kick him revealing the person to be Miss. Sunday. He managed to catch her foot but she proved to not only be fast but flexible as she bent her body in such a way that she could kick him in the face with her other foot only for his head to turn into water as the foot went through it and Naruto just threw the woman away as he reformed.

Miss. Sunday spun in the air and landed in a crouch though her ankle hurt from where he had grabbed her. "That's twice his bodies turned to water now. Once when Mr. 6 hit him and now, we'll have to catch him off guard."

"Easy." Miss. Mother's Day said as she cocked her guns before opening fire on Naruto.

Naruto seemed to vanish from his place and appeared in front of Miss. Mother's Day much to her shock and fear when he grabbed her right wrist and snapped it quite easily bringing out a cry of pain from her as she was forced to drop her gun. With her left hand she brought it up with great struggle but managed to shoot Naruto in the head which just passed right threw him. "Not so easy now is it."

"Bastard." Miss. Mother's Day spat at him just as Mr. 12 moved to attack Naruto by drawing his two katana and stabbing at him. Naruto showed that he could be ruthless when he wanted to be as he tossed Miss. Mother's Day at him and onto the blades which protruded through her chest much to all of their shock. "Y-You…son of…a…"

Mr. 12 yanked his blades free and let Miss. Mother's day body drop to the ground in a heap as blood pooled around her from the wounds with her gun still in her grip. "Tch, got my blades a mess." He shook his blades either side of him, spattering the roof top with two lines of blood.

Naruto shook his head in disgust. "I don't enjoy killing but I do it when I have to. But what disgusts me is a person's partner not caring one bit that they just had a part in their deaths and complaining about their weapons being dirty."

"She knew what she was getting into." Mr. 12 said with a shrug. "It doesn't matter if we die, we knew the risks and it's her fault for being too weak."

"I see." Naruto moved quickly and before any of them could stop him he had appeared in front of the dual sword wielding man with his hand held up to his chest in a pre-flicking gesture. **"Oni Dekopin!" **(Oni Headpoke) The flick that came should be impossible by any standards as an invisible force struck Mr. 12 in the chest and blew a hole through the man with the same invisible force striking a building behind him and blowing it up on contact. "Enjoy hell." Mr. 12 dropped his swords just before he fell back as Naruto poked him the forehead.

He died a moment later.

"What the fuck was that?" Miss. Tuesday shouted, confused and scared at how a man could flick at someone and blow a hole through them.

"Sis, I think the question is who the fuck is this guy?" Miss. Thursday voiced her own question.

"It's called **Haki**, **Busoshoku Haki** to be exact." Naruto answered. They weren't gonna leave alive anyway. "It allows me to use a force similar to invisible armour around myself but I can also use it to augment my attacks, project ahead of me as pure brute force which you just saw or imbue a weapon in it to increase its effectiveness. I'm not the only one who can use it in the world, there are others of course. I was strong before I could use it though but it sure as hell makes fights easier and quicker."

"This guy's a monster." Miss. Sunday muttered with a gulp.

"It doesn't matter, we have our mission!" Mr. 6 charged at Naruto, slashing in an arc that cut through him horizontally but Naruto just slammed a hand down on the blade with enough force to make it stab into the roof of the building.

As Mr. 6 attempted to pull it out, Mr. 10 jumped at Naruto from the building he had been on and punched the roof which caused it to immediately explode from his now noticed super human strength. Naruto leapt from the building to another as the one he had been stood on finally collapsed with Mr. 6 jumping away with his sword whilst Mr. 10 merely dropped to the ground without injury.

"You guys are nothing but flies that offer nothing but some sport." Naruto said, looking at the five remaining people with a bored look. It was a good way to rile people up and make mistakes and what made the fight more boring was that he _knew_ that they couldn't hurt him. It wasn't his opinion or arrogance.

It was fact they couldn't touch him.

In the end the fight was one sided.

**"Burēdo Arashi!" **(Blade Storm) Naruto looked up just in time to see Miss. Tuesday slash her arms down at him and throw a hail of knives from her wrist bands down at him. "I hate to hurt handsome men like you, but the mission always interferes with what I want."

Naruto said nothing as water enveloped his arm which he thrusted upwards. **"Wōtā Kurasshā!" **(Water Crusher) The gathered water blasted up at Miss. Tuesday, blasting the knives away or reducing them to nothing under the water pressure. Before the water could strike the immobile woman in the air, Miss. Thursday was like a blur as she leapt from her building and tackled Miss. Tuesday out of the way. They crashed into the roof of a different building as there landing. His water just splashed down into a street that washed everything away.

_'So she cares about her sister, hm?'_ Naruto thought as the two began to pick themselves up.

"Ugh, thanks for the save sis." Miss. Tuesday said sincerely with a little grin as she helped her twin sister up.

Miss. Thursday smiled weakly, knowing she had twisted her ankle on the landing. "No problem, I just made it."

Mr. 6 looked across to the sisters with a scowl. "Do not let your emotions interfere with the mission or I shall cut down where you stand."

Naruto scowled at the man while the sisters gave their acknowledgements. "Understood. Though doesn't it work to our advantage if we make sure we keep with a high number for a better advantage rather than losing people?" Miss. Thursday questioned.

"Not at the cost of the mission." Mr. 6 said as he lifted his weapon up.

"You guys are beginning to piss me off." Naruto growled out. Before he could say more the building began to shake violently forcing him to look over the edge to see Mr. 10 punching the walls at the bottom with his inhuman strength.

"Come on down ya little bastard! Come and get killed!" Mr. 10 laughed as he gave the wall another punch that blew the wall off entirely and almost ripped out the bottom floor.

Naruto backflipped off of the building just as it began to fall apart and flipped in mid-air so he was falling towards the ground head first, or rather, falling towards Mr. 10 with a purpose. Mr. 10 looked up just to see Naruto soar down towards him and lifted his hand up with his hands open to grab the blonde with a grin that made it looked like he had already won. As Naruto got closer he tore his cloak and threw at the burly man to distract him for a moment as he flew down and blew the cloak away from the speed and slammed his fists into Mr. 10's open palms which caused the man to go wide-eyed as he felt his hands just snap.

Naruto smirked as he used his strength to push Mr. 10 on his back which caused the ground to tremble under the force used. Crouching down on Mr. 10, he placed his feet on the man's stomach and pushed off before coming back down with his hands in position to punch the currently gasping man. **"Raiōken**!" (Thunder King Fist) Naruto's hands became nothing more than a blur as he decimated the man with savage and an uncountable number of rapid-fire punches and considering his strength, no one wanted to be Mr. 10 at this point.

Dust and rock was blown from Naruto's position as he kept punching away causing fissures to run along the sandy streets and up nearby buildings until what seemed to be the last punch sent a shockwave through the area and blew away the street beneath him and the buildings around him forcing the remaining Baroque Works member to jump away with haste.

When the large smoke cloud that had gathered blew away in the wind, it revealed Naruto standing up in a large crater, 10ft. into the ground with a large diameter that still had cracks running from the edge. Behind Naruto was the bloody, beaten and frankly squashed body of Mr. 10. His bones looked as if they had been smashed to bits, his face was unrecognizable and blood surrounded him, most likely all of his blood.

The way Naruto stood with his head down, his long waist coat blowing in the wind, his longer hair being ruffled, he looked pretty fearsome, especially with the blood dripping from his knuckles that was clearly not his own. His black cloak was long gone now though so he couldn't hide his appearance from anyone else anymore, unless of course he got another but he couldn't do that right now.

"What on earth is this man?" Miss. Tuesday gulped in fear as her sister and her stood close-by on top of the remains of the building they had been on before Naruto's pure strength had sent a shockwave that destroyed it.

"Don't forget what we have to do!" Naruto heard the faint noise of swords scraping along the ground as Miss. Sunday ran at him with Mr. 12's fallen katana that she had picked up since whilst she was extremely fast, she lacked any real weapons.

Plus Mr. 12 wasn't using them where he was now. She dragged the two blades along the ground as she blew past the other three members of the Baroque Works and gave a great leap into the sky before spinning downwards at Naruto like a buzz saw as the katana's vibrated through the air.

Naruto moved fast once again as she came closer. His hand shot up and he somehow managed to grab one of the blades stopping Miss. Sunday's attack all together as she just hung there looking down at him with wide-eyes at having been stopped at the speed she was going. There wasn't even blood on his hand from where he had grabbed the sword. "Too slow." His right fist show up and he struck the woman in the stomach. **"Ikkotsu!"** (Single Bone) As soon as his fist connected, the only sounds were of bones being smashed in as Miss. Sunday spat out globs of blood before the full force of his punch blasted her out of the air and down the street where she crashed into the ground and kept on rolling before coming to a complete stop, unmoving.

With the amount of bones having been broken, it would be very difficult for her to survive.

Mr. 6 who had been judging Naruto's strength frowned as he saw what a single punch had done to Miss. Sunday, not to mention the utter destruction around them from his rapid-fire punches earlier. He looked over to the somewhat nervous twins. "This is no time to be afraid. Letting your emotions get in the way will only put you in the way. If that is the case, allow me to kill you now."

"So this is how you guys work, huh?" Naruto asked, looking at the last three opposite him. "What hope do you have? Honestly? I've killed four of you already without using my weapons or my powerful techniques. All you are here for is to keep me busy while everyone else fights because your boss doesn't want me to stop his plans."

Miss. Thursday swallowed at that as she felt fear grip her from the cold hard fact that either way, her sister and her would be getting killed. Against any ordinary opponent they would've flirted with him knowing twins were a weakness to many men, no matter what control they had over themselves and then they would be able to kill them. But with this man, they would be lucky if having sex with each other would stop the man from killing them.

Miss. Tuesday must've thought along the same lines as she also shivered in some fear. They weren't used to this, hell they were only the frontier agents, fighting someone like the one in front of them was nothing but suicide. "W-We s-surrender."

Naruto looked at the two tightly clad women with a raised eyebrow. They didn't look like bad people but looks could be deceiving. "What?"

Mr. 6 looked at them with the same mechanical expression. Clearly he was born to be someone's bitch. "Worthless cowards."

Miss. Tuesday gulped again from the attention. "I-I said w-we surrender."

Naruto sighed. "And how do I know you mean that? How do I know you won't just go and attack one of my friends?"

"We promise." Miss. Thursday spoke this time. "We just want to live, we don't want this life. All we ever wanted was to be a part of something and when we got offered this because of what we could do, we took it."

"…I see." Naruto said after a moment.

Mr. 6 did not like that this show of betrayal to Baroque Works and shot towards the twin with the intention of cutting them down with his large sword. The twins both froze up when the clearly stronger man came at them and whilst they both knew they could possibly dodge him with their own speed and reflex, they doubted they would get far.

Before Mr. 6 could follow through with his actions, Naruto blurred in front of him and kicked the large sword upwards which caused Mr. 6 to stumble backwards before Naruto followed through with a palm thrust that sent the man sprawling along the ground.

He glanced back at the twins. "Get out of here now. I'm giving you one chance, so don't waste it. I've lived a long time to be able to read people and I can tell that you're not lying so, just get going. Make a real life for yourselves and be happy."

Miss. Tuesday and Miss. Thursday didn't need to say anything but nod their thanks before turning tail and running away. Where they went, Naruto didn't know and right now he had other priorities than to worry about where they went.

Mr. 6 stood up from he had stopped with the help of his sword. He looked across the somewhat long distance he had been thrown to see Naruto stood with his arms crossed his face set to stone. Clearly when he was in a fight he stopped his joking around. Or he could just be pissed. "No matter where those two run, Baroque Works will hunt them down and kill them."

Naruto laughed slightly as he uncrossed his arms to straighten his waist coat and brush some dust of his bare chest. "You speak as if Baroque Works will still exist after today. The Straw Hats are kicking your comrades' asses as we speak. That goes for Crocodile's ass too."

Mr. 6's eyebrows rose I surprise, the first sign of true emotions. "Crocodile of the Shichibukai? He's our boss?"

Naruto laughed at that, more out of humour than anything. "You've been following someone's orders and you didn't even know who's? Yep, you're his bitch alright if he's got you wrapped around his finger like this." He shook his head. "You know what? I've had enough with all of this time wasting, I'll just do this." Now that he didn't have his cloak on he was much faster when pulled Blue Rose from its holster and fired.

It happened in the span of one second.

Surprisingly Mr. 6 showed he was fast as he already had his sword up for blocking a bullet. He didn't account for the fact that Blue Rose fired two bullets and that they weren't normal. So when both bullets pierced the sword cleanly and struck his body, blowing his innards out and dropped to the ground dead with a stunned look on his face, Naruto turned away from the gory sight and holstered his gun.

He looked around the destroyed area and shook his head. "Everyone else is fighting; I better see what the situation is like with Vivi. Robin-chan will betray Crocodile for the poneglyph, so she might have already started to move. If I know her as well as I think I do then she'll probably go after the king and in order to make him do what she wants she'll use Vivi." He sighed as he thought of Robin. "She deserves more…I only hope she finds it. After what happened to her home I can't blame her for closing people off but it just leads to a life of loneliness, I know that first hand."

With another sigh he began to make his way to the kings' palace.

XxXxX

**_King's Palace_**

"KOHZA!"

Vivi was forced to sit back and watch as her childhood friend and ironically the leader of the rebel forces, Kohza, was cut down as he stood between the rebel and imperial forces, pleading for them to stop fighting. This obviously was the catalyst that led to the outraged rebels to begin the battle against the king's forces despite the fact that he had been trying to stop them, clearly there anger only needed a single spark to ignite it. Vivi tried yelling for them both to stop, to stop the rebellion for it was all just trickery by Crocodile, but the man in question had conjured a sandstorm to drown out her voice amidst the chaos of battle.

So here she was, forced to watch from her perch at King's Palace with tears flowing freely as men and women were cut down fighting for nothing. "Please stop."

Nico Robin stood nearby a captive King Cobra, watching the events unfolding without a care in the world. "It's such a shame your voice won't reach them over this sandstorm. Such a lively battle, isn't it little girl?"

Cobra saw Crocodile walking closer to Vivi who was still too side-tracked by watching her people fight and fought against his restraints to protect his precious daughter. "Get away from him, Vivi! Run!"

She stood up to face him instead of running away as instructed, either out of bravery or she knew running would be pointless. "This sandstorm, is you're doing?" All she received was an arrogant smirk. "As long as I can stop the cannon in fifteen minutes I can reduce the amount of casualties."

Crocodile's smirk faded into just gritting his teeth against his cigar. "You can stop the uprising this way…you can stop the uprising that way…" He reached out before she could blink and wrapped his hand around her neck. "Wake up princess! Your dream isn't realistic and this is reality! Dreams are only something that the powerful can bring into reality."

Tears started spilling from Vivi's eyes. "Even if it's not realistic, I don't care! I will save this country! I'm its princess, it's my home, and I'll do anything to make this our home again!"

Cobra stared at his daughter with worry and pride, all mixed into one. "Vivi…"

Crocodile merely rolled his eyes. "15 minutes until the cannon fires. The reinforcements for the rebellion will be arriving soon. Your fate is sealed along with the blast area." He held Vivi out over the edge of their elevated position. "If you had told the loyalists about the blast you would have caused chaos but you would have saved thousands of lives."

"Stop it Crocodile! Stop it now!" King Cobra roared from his area in captivity.

"You thought you could save everyone?" Crocodile chuckled. "How naïve. So in the end, you lead everyone to their deaths. From now on no one will know any better. You worked for Baroque Works for 2 years and for that I thank you, but in the end you never had a choice at all. Whether saving the country or rebelling, whichever boring ideals you to stand by, either one would have always resulted in more death. So let me tell you, you cannot save this country!" With that he dropped Vivi over the edge.

"VIVI! NO!" Cobra yelled in fright as his daughter disappeared from sight.

Vivi closed her eyes as she fell waiting for the hard impact of the ground but instead all she felt was a soft impact before the wind began to push against her face. Opening one eye in wonder of what was going on, she found herself somehow climbing higher to the sky. That wasn't what caused her to blink in shock though. "N-Naruto-san?"

Indeed it was Naruto that had caught her mid-fall and was currently flying back up with his legs transformed as water. "Fancy meeting you here, Vivi-hime." Naruto grinned down at her as they appeared just above the ledge of where she had been thrown from to face the amazed eyes of Cobra, Robin and angered ones of Crocodile.

"Poseidon!" Crocodile growled out, almost biting into his cigar all the way out of anger.

Cobra merely gawked at the blonde as he landed on the ledge with reformed legs. "Uzumaki…Naruto?" He whispered in shock.

Robin smirked to herself as she looked Naruto over. Now that he wasn't wearing a cloak she was able to get a good view of his muscled body and she liked what she saw. _'So you made it here, I didn't expect the Frontier Agents to slow you down...what will you do now, Uzumaki Naruto?'_

Naruto let Vivi down with ease though he made sure to stand just a bit in front of her as Crocodile was just some feet away from him. "I made it just in time to save Vivi-hime here. The cannon-fodder you sent after me to delay me would've worked if I was as weak as them. You underestimated me Crocodile."

Crocodile just smirked at him. "So you killed Mr. 6 and those other failures? I expected as much." He held out his arm which gathered sand around it, including his hand which had a sharp point to it. "Since Straw Hat Luffy failed in killing me, you must be the next person to fall at my feet!" His legs turned to sand as he flew at Naruto. **"Dezāto Supāda!"** (,Desert Sword) His right hand which had been turned into a loose blade of fast-moving sand, slashed down at Naruto with incredible speed and power.

Naruto didn't bother to move like Vivi did as she hid behind him out of instinct and instead raised his hand up. A flash of energy left his hand and materialized into a mirror inches from his hand. When the blade of sand struck the mirror…

…nothing happened.

Crocodile stared with furrowed brows as his blade of sand did nothing but push against the mirror without leaving a mark, all he felt as he continued to push against the mirror was an incredible resistance coming from it as if his hand was being repelled from even touching it. "Impossible! My **Dezāto Supāda **has never blocked before, what is this?"

Naruto smirked up at him as he kept his hand in place. "I don't really feel like telling you why such a _weak_ attack won't break through my own." Crocodile let his hand returned to normal and drifted back to where he once stood, reforming his legs. "And to answer your first question. I'm not here to fight you…he is." They all looked up as Naruto pointed to the sky.

"CROCODILE!"

"Damn." The shout from the sky of a voice that he thought he had finished off caused Crocodile to grit his teeth. "Straw Hat Luffy! That fucking kid!" Luffy was riding on a massive falcon, coming right towards the palace.

"He took his time." Naruto chuckled before he turned to Vivi and grabbed her around the waist with one arm. "Come on, this isn't our place right now." With his arm around Vivi he stepped off the raised landing without a care.

"KYAAAAAAAAH!" Vivi screamed as they fell, clutching onto Naruto as the wind blasted her face and blew her hair back.

When they touched ground, Naruto bent his knees to land safely and almost laughed when he saw Vivi curled up around his arm. "We're on ground now, Vivi-hime. You can open-"

**_SMACK!_**

"DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!" Vivi screamed at him as she nursed her now sore hand. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TURN INTO WATER?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, surprised at how hard she struck him. "I can chose when to turn my body into water or not and OW! Where the hell did you learn to hit like that?"

"This is not the time for messing about!" Vivi exclaimed, her lip trembling with worry which made Naruto to turn serious as she looked down. "The palace is going to be bombed, there isn't any time left. Everyone is going to die and no one can even hear my voice. If this continues, then the country will-."

"Hey, don't worry." He said with a grin catching her attention as she looked up at him. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Luffy won't let Crocodile win. And everyone heard your voice, the Straw Hats won't let anyone blow up your home or hurt your people."

"Aaaaah!" Naruto and Vivi turned to see Chopper staring at them with a dropped jaw. "Luffy is till alive?"

"Tony-kun!" Vivi exclaimed with shock and happiness.

Naruto grinned at the tiny reindeer and jabbed a thumb up towards the palace. "He's alive and about to kick Crocodile's ass."

Usopp was bandaged like a mummy from his injuries as he came up behind Chopper with watery eyes. "See! See? I knew it!"

Sanji shook his head as he walked up too; cigarette in his mouth like everything was fine. "Yeah right, is that the face of someone who knew it?"

"Usopp! Sanji!" Vivi exclaimed as they all began to gather.

"Hey, Vivi? Why're you all banged up like that?" They all turned to see Nami waling over to them with a grin which turned into a scowl as she looked at Usopp. "Usopp!" Nami roared as she hit him in the back with her new Clima-Tact staff.

"Nami!" Vivi exclaimed in joy, ignoring Usopp's pitiful cries. "Mr. Bushido! Everyone's here!"

"Who asked you to make me a damn party toy?" She dropped a heavily wounded Zoro who stood angrily as if to attack her. "Oh whatever, you can walk just fine."

Usopp looked at her weakly and quite pitifully considering he was just a body of bandages. "But it worked just fine…didn't it?"

Nami pointed at him with narrowed eyes. "I'll kick your ass later."

"Well then…" Naruto said, getting their attention. "…Since you're all here, there's no need for me to stick around any longer." He looked back up where he could see Luffy at the edge whilst Pell flew down in his falcon form. "You guys have a mission to do. Don't back down no matter what the situation is Vivi. Soon, this country will be just like it once was."

"Wait!" Nami called just before Naruto could fly up. "Is this it? Will we see you again?"

"What? You're leaving now?" Usopp exclaimed before Zoro clamped a hand over his mouth.

Naruto sighed as he looked back at them just as Pell landed next to Vivi. "This isn't any sort of goodbye, but from here it's probably the last time we'll see each other for a while. You guys have your own journey to take. I'm here to test Luffy, to see if he's got what it takes to survive. Once Crocodile is defeated, I'll do what I can to help the country with its draught but I can't stick around much longer."

"Why not?" Chopper asked with a confused frown and tilted head.

"Idiot." Zoro muttered, shaking his head. "He's known as 'The World's Most Wanted Pirate'. Smoker's aware of him actually being alive now and it won't be long before he contacts Marine HQ. Do you understand what that would mean for Alabasta? It will be targeted by every Marine available if they believe he's still here."

"Whoa…really?" Chopper looked up at Naruto with amazement.

"That's not all, if they find out I'm allies with you guys in any way, they'll come after you. Smoker already knows I helped you in Nanohana and in Rainbase but there's no solid evidence. It would be better if it stayed that way." Naruto explained with a sigh. "To the Marine's…I'm too dangerous to let wander the earth. Since my time, many years ago, the Marines have gotten much stronger and if I want to make a name for myself again and go after One Piece myself…I need to find my own crew." His feet began to turn into water bit by bit. "I won't say goodbye, because I know we'll meet again, so I'll see you later."

"Uzumaki Naruto." Pell said, walking forward to bow to Naruto. "Thank you for taking care and protecting Vivi-sama."

With his legs now just water and hovering, he glanced back. "Think nothing of it…it was my pleasure." He winked at Vivi with a smile. "Later." With that said, he shot up towards the upper level.

Nami stared up after him with a sad but hopeful smile. _'Next time we see each other…I won't let you slip through my fingers again. I always get what I want in the end.'_

Vivi also stared up though she had a smile on her face. _'Thank you for helping us. I hope we see each other again one day, Naruto-kun.'_

XxXxX

Luffy launched himself at Crocodile from where he had been dropped by Pell. "Don't you understand Straw Hat Luffy? No matter how many times you try, you will never hit me. Is it that you want to be impaled by my hook again? Is that it?"

Luffy ignored his words in favour of flying at him and punching Crocodile which struck the clearly surprised man in the jaw forcing him to spit up blood from the force of the impact as he was sent flying. Luffy didn't stop the though as he skidded along the ground and shot his hands at Crocodile whilst his legs began to spin rapidly. **"Gomu Gomu no-"**

"Who is that?" Cobra asked with awe at seeing someone actually strike Crocodile.

"Tch, boy!" Crocodile growled as he stopped himself from sliding only to have Luffy grab him by the lapels of his coat. Crocodile looked down with gritted teeth as he saw moisture on the Straw Hat's hands and arms. _'Could he really have…?' _He had no time to think on it though as Luffy's legs gained the right momentum that allowed him kick off from the ground and spin toward his opponent to deliver a powerful head butt.

**"-Marunoko!" **(Gum-Gum Buzzsaw) Crocodile was sent flying once more and landed on his back whilst blood spilled from his forehead. Luffy was able to backflip from the attack and land on his feet with a grin. "Hehehehe! Got you!"

"This boy…" Cobra whispered once more in amazement.

Robin smirked as she saw her boss and partner hit the ground. "Heh."

"Looks like Luffy's got it handled up here." Cobra and Robin turned to their right to see Naruto somehow stood there with a grin on his face. "There's no need for me to interfere right now."

"Uzumaki Naruto?" Cobra asked with a confused look. Naruto looked at the king with a smile. "So it really is you, old friend. How is it you haven't changed in 30-something years?"

Naruto's smile faltered slight and Robin was slightly surprised at the sight of anguish and sadness in his eyes as he was asked the question. "If I knew the answer old friend, I'd tell you. But I'm as much as in the dark about than anyone else."

Robin's eyebrows rose at the answer. _'He doesn't know why he doesn't age like normal people? How can one not know such a significant detail?'_

Cobra smiled sadly at that though he was happy to see an old friend from many years ago. "I see. Despite the situation we find ourselves in, it is good to see you again."

"Uzumaki Naruto." Robin spoke up with her soft tone. "Do you still persist to just stand by and watch?"

"Of course…" Naruto looked back at the fight. "…He doesn't need any help. "

Luffy panted slightly as he stared at Crocodile's prone body. "Get up, Crocodile! Stand up!" The barrel on his back was keeping him wet from the pipe running from it. "At the moment I lost…the water from Yuba made me notice something. If you touch water, you can't turn into sand anyway. That's why you hate the rain! Because you're afraid of it! As long as I keep myself wet, I can beat you this way. The show is just beginning, I won't lose this time!"

Robin shook her head at the rubber boy. "No matter what he does, he won't win."

"Is that so?" Naruto looked over at Robin. "Or are you trying to convince yourself he can't win? Because that way you won't be confused about what to think anymore? That it would be easier for him to just die? Sorry love, but the world doesn't work like that. Just watch the fight, and then make your judgements." He turned back to the fight and paid no attention to what Robin's reaction was to what he had said.

It didn't matter as long as she began to believe in the possibility that the seemingly impossible could happen.

XxXxX

**_Straw Hat Pirates_**

"What?" Usopp exclaimed to Vivi as the war between the royal family and rebellion waged around them. "You want me to find the shooter? How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

Vivi nodded her head with determination. "There's no time to think about, we've only got 10 minutes."

Usopp frowned and cupped his chin in thought. "Since the diameter of the blast is about 5km or so, the enemy should be at least 2.5km away."

"No!" Vivi shouted suddenly catching them all off-guard. "The shooters might be very near here."

"What?" Usopp exclaimed with wide eyes. "How? If the shooter is here, then they'll be…"

Nami grit her teeth and clenched her fists. "Crocodile is that sort of person…"

"Killing his own nakama." Chopper growled out.

One of Baroque Works' disguised soldiers made an effort to attack Vivi from behind but before he could so much as hope to swing his weapon he was quickly and efficiently taken down courtesy of a sword slash and kick to the face by Zoro and Sanji. This alerted the rest to the fact that they were surrounded by members of Baroque Works' Billions all vying for Vivi's blood.

"Damn it!" Usopp exclaimed, feeling panic and fear.

"We've finally found you Princess Vivi!"

"Killing you will earn us a promotion!"

"And we'll become millionaires!"

"Well aren't they ambitious." Nami commented, moving into a stance with her Clima-Tact though Sanji and Zoro were at the front already.

"How long do you plan on taking?" Sanji questioned his nakama/rival.

Zoro looked at him and shrugged. "We have to make every second count…"

"2 SECONDS!" Both men shouted simultaneously before moving in on the millions. As they quickly dispatched all of the men, the Straw Hats quickly separated in order to find the bomb quicker since they only had a short time limit before it went off.

As she ran, Vivi bit her bottom lip in worry. _'Can this country really be saved?' _Images of her friends popped into her head. _'Luffy-san, Nami-chan, Sanji-san, Tony-kun, Mr. Bushido and Naruto-kun…thanks to you all I've made it this far. I know with you, we can save this country.'_

XxXxX

**_Luffy Vs. Crocodile_**

Crocodile sat on the ground laughing at Luffy. "You! You think you can beat me?"

Luffy didn't so much as blink as he answered. "Yes."

"Even while under such danger, you could still see through my trick. But in the end you're still young, so you think that's all there is to it? You are wrong. You know, I'm one of the Shichibukai!" Crocodile laughed even more at the absurdity of Luffy's belief in defeating him.

Luffy positioned himself into his fighting stance as he prepared for anything. "Huh? You're one of the Shichibukai? Then I'll just be the eighth one of you then!"

Cobra simply stared in awe of Luffy. "That man is…"

"He's a pirate as well…haven't you heard?" Robin glanced over at Cobra. "So the princess gets to live a little longer…"

"So it's him…he's the one who brought back Vivi?" Cobra questioned.

Naruto smirked as he glanced at them and then Luffy. "Doesn't he remind you of someone?"

"Hmhmhm." Cobra had to chuckle at irony of it all as he looked at his old friend. "I can see what you mean. The same was once said about you however despite you being rivals."

Robin listened in with interest becoming more intrigued. "Roger's and my time is over. We're only here to build a path for their era to take over." He smirked though. "But that doesn't mean I'll allow Luffy to become Pirate King without any competition."

"I see." Was all Cobra said as they returned their attention to the fight and though he was currently pined to the wall as a prisoner, he was still happy to see an old friend.

**"Gomu Gomu no Bureto!"** (Gum-Gum Bullet) Luffy stretched one arm far behind him then snapped it back to deliver a short-distance, one-fisted powerful blow at Crocodile's face.

Crocodile merely moved his head to the side to avoid the blow. "Attacks of this kind are too easy to dodge." He grabbed on to Luffy's arm. "Is your hand wet now? Don't forget that I can absorb water too" He said as he began sucking the extra water out of Luffy's arm. "It's over!"

_'Almost forgot he had that ability!'_ Luffy dashed at Crocodile and launched a kick which stretched his leg across the distance that only ended with his foot going through Crocodile's head as he partially turned into his element. As he flew through Crocodile's body he took deep gulps from the pump attached to the barrel on his back. "In our earlier fight, you said by using the Devil Fruit powers in different ways you can become stronger." He poured more water onto himself before he launched another long punch at Crocodile before he sent both fists at Crocodile. **"Gomu Gomu no Gaturingu!" **(Gum-Gum Gatling) Luffy used his stretching ability to bring his fists forward repeatedly in a blurry, rapid barrage of strong punches that created the illusion of him having multiple arms making an almost unreadable pattern. Almost meaning that Crocodile was able to narrowly dodge each strike before jumping backwards to avoid it all together.

"Sneaky…!" He dragged his prominent hook across the ground to stop his movement as sand gathered around his only hand. **"****Dezāto Supāda!"** (,Desert Sword_) _He sent a blade of sand through the ground at Luffy.

"This attack again?" Luffy jumped to the side just the large blade cut the ground all the way through to the edge and blew off part of the edge. He panted as he looked down the large crevice the attack had made. "Phew, that was dangerous."

Luffy pulled his fist back at the last second and rushed at Crocodile. "Repeating your attacks is getting-" Crocodile was stopped from speaking when Luffy backhanded him in the face unexpectedly. "I've been planning this from the start!" He shouted as he took the water barrel from his back and aimed the hose at Crocodile and sprayed him. "To get you soaked!"

"Of course you did…" Crocodile said while forming a whirlwind of sand in his palm. **"Sables!"** (Sandstorm) Crocodile threw the whirlwind of sand at Luffy which blew both the Devil Fruit eater and the barrel away.

Luffy caught sight of his water barrel falling towards the ground and stretched his arms out to catch it. "Aah! Water barrel Water barrel!" Luffy caught his barrel before it could smash on the ground, landing on the edge of the castle walls. "Phew!"

Crocodile laughed as he stood back up. "Kuhahahaha, you're really into this fight aren't you, Straw Hat? If you lose your barrel of water then you're out of tricks, eh? Kuhahaha, if that's the case then how are you any different from the last time I trashed you?"

Luffy looked down to his side at his barrel before glaring at Crocodile. "You're right, it wouldn't be any different." Luffy pulled the pump off the barrel and chugged all of the water from it before smashing it onto the ground. "Then how about this? If it's like this I'm different from the last time!"

Crocodile looked at him with an expression displaying his disbelief. "You're not serious."

Luffy, having drunk all of the water in the barrel had had his stomach expand to the point that he looked like a large balloon. "Water Luffy!" With a noise similar to a hole being popped in a balloon, water started coming out of Luffy's belly button. "Oh no, I'm leaking!"

Naruto raised both eyebrows at the sight. "Man, I'm glad my Devil Fruit doesn't do that to me. I don't think I'd be able to show myself in public."

Robin giggled quietly into her hand at the sight of Luffy. "He sure is something, isn't he?"

Crocodile simply stared as Luffy panicked at his leaking water. _'Is this kid serious?' _His fist clenched at his side. _'Doesn't he understand the situation? Does this kid think he can really underestimate me or something?' _His eyes seemed to glow with his anger as his veins sprouted around his forehead and eyes. "You goddamn kid! What the hell are you joking about?"

In response, Luffy squeezed his stomach, pushing water up through his throat and spat a sphere of water out at Crocodile's face which drenched the man completely, paralyzing his body from any movement. "Who's kidding?"

Crocodile grit his teeth at Luffy. _'Damn that Straw Hat…my body…won't move.'_

"I'm always serious!" Luffy stretched both his arms far back and then hurled them forward, striking Crocodile with both instantaneously with a double open palm strike. **"Gomu Gomu no Bazūka!"** (Gum-Gum Bazooka) As soon as he struck Crocodile, Luffy was blown back slightly since he was just a water balloon at this point whilst Crocodile was blasted into a wall that began to crumble down on them. "Heh! How's that, Crocodile?"

"This all seems so hard to believe…" Cobra said as he watched Luffy knock Crocodile into a wall. He gritted his teeth a moment later though as the spikes pinning him to the wall were pulled out courtesy of Robin using her powers to remove them.

"Right now isn't the time to appreciate it just yet King Cobra." She said, dropping the spikes to the ground. "You should hurry up and take me to the place where the 'true history' is written."

Cobra looked at Robin with the only glare he could muster in his state. "Why do you want see such a thing? What're you planning?"

Robin's face expression lost all of her amusement or humour as she looked down at Cobra with a steely gaze. With her powers she grew extra hands around Cobra's body and manipulated them to place him in a painful yet successful submission hold. "It doesn't matter to you. Just take me there." She smirked at Luffy as he looked over at them. "It looks like your luck is about to run out."

The rubble that had covered Crocodile was pushed away by sand as Crocodile emerged with an incensed look on his face. "Hurry up, Nico Robin! If you don't want to be drained to nothing but bones! This kid has made me fucking pissed!"

Robin nodded with closed eyes and a smile. "As you wish." She turned to Naruto, who other than moving his hand to his gun when she harmed Cobra, did nothing, "And what of you Uzumaki Naruto? In consideration to _what_ you are, it would be against your benefit to stick around."

Naruto barely glanced at her. "How many times must I tell you Robin-chan? My place is here. I can trust that you won't do anything rash with my old friend there, can't I? After all, you just wish to see the _'true history'_, am I right?"

Robin raised an eyebrow at him from the way he worded his words. "Very well. But I must inform you, the battle was over the moment Straw Hat Luffy appeared at this location." She said as she began to walk away.

"Straw Hat Luffy, listen to me." Crocodile said, grinning evilly. "Every rock on this earth will be destroyed." Crocodile placed his hand on the ground and almost instantly all of the grass began to turn yellow, then the trees, and then every part of the ground began to dry out and crack as if an earthquake had struck it before splitting open.

Luffy began to fall through the fissure that had opened up. "That bastard! **Watergun!"** He shot of globs of water from his mouth at Crocodile, but the man simply raised his hand and sucked the water into it. "He used his hand to absorb it as easy as that?"

"You think you took away my ability 'Water Luffy'? Then you're an ever greater fool than I could've imagined! The power of sand depends solely on the power of aridity, you see? This right hand can make anything dry without limits! Even trees, rocks or dirt!" The earth began to shake as Crocodile used his power on everything around him. "Turn everything back into sand!"

Luffy watched at the entire area was turned to sand, statues, trees, doors and even grass. "Rocks…rocks turned into sand too." He looked down when he noticed something missing. "Grr! My sandals too!"

"Everything touched by my right hand will dry into sand!" Crocodile laughed everything began to die and erode. **"Guraundo Sekko!"** (Ground Drying) Crocodile didn't stop as he turned what was once a beauty atop of Alabasta's Royal Palace to a wasteland.

Naruto, who was hovering over just over the destroyed land, stared at Crocodile with narrowed eyes. _'He's stronger than I thought he was. I'm not even sure what our powers would do to each other but I do know he would be a difficult person for me to fight. All the more reason for him to be on my crew, knock a little sense into him along with bribery and it should be no problem.'_

XxXxX

Luffy pulled himself up on a ledge overlooking what used to be the palace lawn that they had been fighting on. "Damn, that guy's right hand can make the palace's lawn turn a desert." He looked around below to where the fighting was still going on. "Where did he go?"

"This little fight caused me to lose so much energy!" Luffy looked up to see Crocodile reform from sand standing on the ledge he was currently holding on to. He reached down and grabbed Luffy around the neck with his right hand. Luffy tried to spit a water ball at Crocodile again but missed as Crocodile moved his head. "You didn't hit me this time Straw Hat Luffy. Pathetic." Just like he had just done so to the palace lawn, he began absorbing Luffy's fluid from his body which was causing his skin to shrivel up and even caused his bones to show. "For the second time, you lose!"

Luffy's body which had now completely shrivelled up and wrinkled, could only hand from Crocodile's grip as the member of the Shichibukai looked up at the massive clocktower. "This is a good way for you to die. In just 6 minutes this entire area and this yard will be destroyed." He threw Luffy high into the air. "So just stay quiet and enjoy the show! Celebrate the birth of a new sand country and its _king_!" He let Luffy's body lifelessly hit the ground. "Sorry. I'm in a hurry. I have to go. I think she meant the tomb in the west side." Crocodile's body turned to sand and was blown away by the wind.

Naruto sighed at another loss for Luffy from where he was currently walking towards the downed pirate. Whilst he clearly could have helped him he didn't think he really had a right to jump in. It was Luffy's fight and unless he asked for help then he wouldn't help. The only ones who had a right to help were his crew; he was just a tag along to the Straw Hats. It would take more than just Crocodile to make him jump in and help Luffy.

As he got closer, Naruto looked down at the pitiful looking form of a dried up rubber man. "You giving up already?" A small shadow on the ground seemed to grow larger prompting him to look up with curiosity only for the very thing coming towards them make him grin and shake his head. "What star were you born under to be so damn lucky?" He stepped to the side just as the glob of water that had been evaded by Crocodile to come back down and smother Luffy.

"OOWAAAAH!" Luffy shouted as his body became revitalized and he shot up taking in a big gulp of air. "I thought I was dead for sure." He panted for air before looking up at Naruto. "Why didn't you stop him?"

Naruto shrugged as he began to turn into his element. "He wasn't my guy to beat, he was yours, taking that away from you would only make you angry and worse, crush your pride. Now, go and kick his ass for sure, one more chance and that's it."

Luffy grinned as he nodded his head at him before standing up. "I gotta find him then, I'm not letting him go that easily." He began to run in a direction and Naruto counted down the seconds before Luffy ran back with a sheepish grin. Naruto jabbed his thumb in the opposite direction without a word and Luffy took off like a bullet.

Naruto looked off in the distance Luffy went just as his entire body excluding his head turned to water. "The conclusion is almost here." Without a sound his head turned to water and the glob of water splashed onto the sand and was absorbed, revealing this Naruto was nothing but a mere clone.

XxXxX

**_Going Merry_**

Naruto walked over to the mast with a folded piece of paper in his hand a knife in the other. Placing the paper against the mast, he lifted the dagger and stabbed the top of the paper into it in such a way it would not be blown off or ripped off easily. Pulling a pencil that he had stashed behind his ear he wrote on the blank side of the paper.

When he finished, he threw the pencil over the side of the boat. "I hope you guys understand why I have to do this. When we meet again I'd hate to be your enemies. Be safe." With a sigh, he turned around and walked over to the ledge which he stepped on. With a step forward he fell off and towards the water but just like earlier, his entire body became water and splashed into the sea.

* * *

><p><strong>To Be Continued in the Next Chapter – Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Baroque Works Falls &amp; Recruitment<strong>

**Anyway I hope you guys liked this story and chapter. **

**R&R…let me know what you think, questions, comments. Be sure to let me know.**


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